The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and several single-item measures were administered to registered nurses (RNs) working within 23 U.S.-based Army Medical Department (AMEDD) hospitals. Data were analyzed with logistic regression for nested data. Unfavorable nursing practice environments had a substantial association with job dissatisfaction (OR 13.75, p < .01), emotional exhaustion (OR 12.70, p < .01), intent to leave (OR 3.03, p < .01), and fair to poor quality of care (OR 10.66, p < .01). This study provides the first system-wide analyses of nursing practice environments in AMEDD hospitals in the U.S. Similar to findings in civilian samples, poor quality work environments are associated with less favorable RN work outcomes and quality of care ratings.
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