Reliability and Validity of Measures Commonly Utilized to Assess Nurse Well-Being.

BACKGROUND: A healthy nursing workforce is vital to ensuring that patients are provided quality care. Assessing nurses' well-being and related factors requires routine evaluations from health system leaders that leverage brief psychometrically sound measures. To date, measures used to assess nurses' well-being have primarily been psychometrically tested among other clinicians or nurses working in specific clinical practice settings rather than in large, representative, heterogeneous samples of nurses. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to psychometrically test measures frequently used to evaluate factors linked to nurse well-being in a heterogeneous sample of nurses within a large academic health system. METHODS: This cross-sectional, survey-based study used a convenience sample of nurses working across acute care practice settings. A total of 177 nurses completed the measures that included the Professional Quality of Life (proQOL), the short form of the Professional Quality of Life measure, the Connor Davidson Resiliency 2-Item (CD-RISC-2), the World Health Organization Well-being Index (WHO-5), the Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS), and the single item Mini-Z. Internal reliability and convergent validity were assessed for each measure. RESULTS: All the measures were found to be reliable. Brief measures used to assess domains of well-being demonstrated validity with longer measures, as evident by significant correlation coefficients. DISCUSSION: This study provides support for the reliability and validity of measures commonly used to assess well-being in a diverse sample of nurses working across acute care settings. Data from routine assessments of the nursing workforce hold the potential to guide the implementation and evaluation of interventions capable of promoting workplace well-being. Assessments should include psychometrically sound, low-burden measures, such as those evaluated in this study.

Women's Use of Self-Care Interventions for Endometriosis Pain in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To identify self-care interventions women living in the United States are using to manage endometriosis-related pain, describe frequency of use, and determine perceived effectiveness. DESIGN: Mixed-methods design with an online survey. SETTING: A survey link was posted on endometriosis support group Facebook pages. PARTICIPANTS: The online survey was completed by 98 women living in the United States who were members of Facebook support groups. MEASUREMENTS: Quantitative measures included demographic and health-related characteristics; self-care intervention frequency of use and perceived effectiveness; knowledge, confidence, and support managing endometriosis symptoms; pain intensity; and quality of life (QOL) operationalized with the Endometriosis Health Profile-30. Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficients were used to analyze data. Qualitative perspectives were captured through open-ended questions and analyzed for themes. RESULTS: Women used an average of 5.8 self-care interventions more than once per week. Heat, rest, over-the-counter pain medications, and diet changes were perceived as most effective, with >75% reporting at least slight improvement. Frequent use of multiple strategies was significantly correlated with worse scores for pain-related QOL (p < .01), all other QOL dimensions (p < .01), and less confidence in one's ability to control symptoms (p < .05). Endometriosis pain management perspectives showed three themes: Daily Struggle With Mental and Physical Health, Lack of Knowledge and Understanding From Health Care Providers, and Lack of Understanding From Everybody Else. CONCLUSION: These results strengthen evidence for the effectiveness of heat, rest, and dietary changes for endometriosis-related pain and underscore an individual's desire for support and understanding from health care professionals, family, and friends. Nurses can provide evidence-based self-care intervention teaching to help mitigate endometriosis-related pain, prevent adverse effects, and assist individuals in discovering what works for them. It is imperative that nurses deliver and advocate for well-informed, empathetic, and supportive care from all health care professionals.