Developing, validating and testing a Ward Environment Assessment Tool: WEAT.

Aims To develop, validate and test a ward environment assessment tool (WEAT) for post-occupancy evaluation of hospital wards from the perspectives of ward nurses, using Person-Environment fit theory. Background It is argued that as the needs and expectations of various user groups of healthcare facilities would vary, so would the tools to measure the suitability of the architectural design features of these healing environments for different groups of users. However, a review of relevant literature revealed that there is a dearth of assessment tools to appraise the adequacy of healthcare facilities for nursing staff. Methods Extant literature was reviewed to construct WEAT. Twenty ward nurses were interviewed to obtain user perspectives on the ward environment. Post-occupancy evaluation of three hospital wards was undertaken to validate and test WEAT. Results WEAT: A new post-occupancy evaluation tool was created. Conclusions WEAT measures the impacts of ward environment on nurses in four personal constructs; namely physical, cognitive, sensory and universal. Implications for Nursing Management WEAT is an innovative management decision-making tool for ward managers, who may use its results to argue for workspace redesign with facilities managers, explore job readjustments with occupational health nurses and review job description with human resource managers.