Table 1. Properties of the Hospital-Level Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index Subscales Used to Classify Hospitals as Better, Mixed, or Poor Care Environments (N = 168).

	No. of items	Cronbach α	Range	Mean (SD)	Median
Nursing foundations for quality of care^a	7	.74	1.2-2.8	2.2 (0.3)	2.2
Nurse manager ability, leadership, and support^b	4	.82	1.3-3.0	2.4 (0.2)	2.4
Collegial nurse/physician relations	3	.80	2.2-3.2	2.8 (0.2)	2.8

Scale scores range from 1 to 4, with higher scores representing more positive work environments.

Differs from the foundations scale in Lake¹¹ because (1) items related to the use of nursing diagnoses were not included in the current study questionnaire, and (2) others related to the use of a nursing (vs medical) model for care and a preceptorship model were overly highly correlated with staffing and education and were dropped.

Differs from the nurse manager ability subscale because the item “Supervisors use mistakes as learning opportunities, not criticism” was not included in the study questionnaire.