Nurses’ Perceptions of Professional Practice Environment and Its Relation to Missed Nursing Care and Nurse Satisfaction

Abstract

The professional practice environment is a factor that can have a significant impact on missed nursing care. The study aimed to find a relationship between nurses’ perceptions of their professional practice environment and missed nursing care and job satisfaction. An additional aim was to find differences in nurses’ perceived rating of the professional practice environment according to hospital location and job position. A descriptive correlational study was performed. The sample included 513 general and practical nurses providing direct care in nine Czech hospitals. The Revised Professional Practice Environment scale and the Missed Nursing Care (MISSCARE) survey were used to collect data. The professional practice environment was most correlated with satisfaction with the current position (0.4879). The overall score of missed care correlated most strongly with the subscale “staff relationships” (−0.2774). Statistically significant differences in the rating of two subscales, “control over practice” and “cultural sensitivity”, were found between nurses from hospitals in district capitals and those from hospitals in smaller cities. Statistically significant differences in the rating of the “leadership and autonomy in clinical practice” and “teamwork” subscales were found between general nurses and practical nurses. The professional practice environment is related to nurse satisfaction and missed nursing care.