Assessment of Nursing Practice Environment in Primary Healthcare Centers in Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

A work environment that boosts nurses’ leadership skills, has adequate resources and staff and collegial nurse–physician relations, and allows nurses to participate in decision-making enhances patient care quality and nurses’ job satisfaction and performance. I used a cross-sectional design and the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index among 519 nurses to assess the nursing practice environment in primary healthcare centers (PHCs) across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Respondents’ views varied, and the general mean (2.45) showed that most nurses thought their work environment has a fair number of staff and resources. The general standard deviation (0.924) indicated that a significant variation exists between the composite score values, and there were no significant differences in the other factors. It was concluded that most PHCs have poor staff and resource adequacy, which shows the significant influence of nurses’ job satisfaction and performance on the quality of their work environment.