Geriatric Care in Hospitals The Nursing Practice Environment and Nurse-Perceived Quality of

The relationships between general and geriatric-specific nursing practice envi-ronments (NPEs) and nurse-perceived quality of geriatric care in hospitals were examined using the Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystems Elders bench-marking database. The overall general NPE was negatively related, but the overall geriatric-specific NPE was positively related to quality of geriatric care. Among five subdomains of the general NPE measured by the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, Nurse Participation in Hospital Affairs was positively related to quality of geriatric care, whereas two sub-domains were not significant, and another two were negatively related to quality of geriatric care. All three subdomains of the geriatric-specific NPE measured by the Geriatric Nursing Practice Environment scale were positively related to quality of geriatric care when adjusting for general NPE. These findings suggest geriatric-specific organizational support combined with nurse involvement in hospital decision making is critical for delivering quality geriatric care.