Practice Environment and Work Engagement of Staff Nurses in a Specialized Hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Creating a practice environment that completely engages nurses in their practice is a major concern in the nursing profession (Sayed et al., 2019). Improving practice environment has become a worldwide issue since there is still nursing shortage around the globe (Almuhsen et al., 2017). Thie purpose of this study is to determine the relationship of Practice Environment and Work Engagement of Staff Nurses in a Specialized Hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This study utilized a quantitative, non-experimental, descriptive correlational research design. Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES NWI) (Lake, 2002) and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004) were used in this study to measure practice environment and work engagement of staff nurses in a Specialized Hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This study showed that staff nurses have high perception on their practice environment (3.93 ±SD .507) and average level of work engagement (4.2 ± .910). In addition, it proved a positive significant correlation between Practice Environment and Work Engagement of Staff Nurses in a Specialized Hospital in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Furthermore, there is a positive significant correlation between Work Engagement and Demographic Characteristics in terms of age, educational attainment, and years in current unit. Nurse administrators, managers and leaders hold a vital role in practice environment and work engagement in reviewing practices, policies, and procedures. Keywords: work environment, work conditions, practice environment, work engagement, work environment and work engagement, practice environment and work engagement.