Measuring health care workers' perceptions of what constitutes a compassionate organisation culture and working environment: Findings from a quantitative feasibility survey.

INTRODUCTION: Health care organisation cultures and working environments are highly complex, dynamic and constantly evolving settings. They significantly influence both the delivery and outcomes of care.

AIM: Phase 1 quantitative findings are presented from a larger three phase feasibility study designed to develop and test a Cultural Health Check toolkit to support health care workers, patients and organisations in the provision of safe, compassionate and dignified care.

METHODOLOGY: A mixed methods approach was applied. The Cultural Health Check Healthcare Workers Questionnaire was distributed across two National Health Service Hospitals in England, UK. Both hospitals allocated two wards comprising of older people and surgical specialities.

FINDINGS: The newly devised Cultural Health Check Staff Rating Scale Version 1 questionnaire was distributed to 223 health care workers. Ninety eight responses were returned giving a response rate of 44%. The Cultural Health Check Staff Rating Scale Version 1 has a significant Cronbach alpha of .775; this reliability scaling is reflected in all 16 items in the scale. Exploratory factor analysis identified two significant factors "Professional Practice and Support" and "Workforce and Service Delivery." These factors according to health care workers significantly impact on the organisation culture and quality of care delivered by staff.

CONCLUSION: The Cultural Health Check Staff Rating Scale Version 1 questionnaire is a newly validated measurement tool that could be used and applied to gauge health care workers perceptions of an organisations level of compassion. Historically we have focused on identifying how caring and compassionate nurses, doctors and related allied health professionals are. This turns the attention on employers of nurses and other related organisations.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The questionnaire can be used to gauge the level of compassion with a health care organisation culture and working environment. Nurse managers and leaders should focus attention regarding how these two factors are supported and resourced in the future.