Testing the comparability and interpretability of the revised professional practice environment scale – Filipino version

Abstract

Background and aims: The Revised Professional Practice Environment (RPPE) Scale is a 39-item four Likert scale-rated questionnaire. The US-based Massachusetts General Hospital developed it as a measure of nurses’ leadership and autonomy over practice, relationship with physicians, control over practice, communication about patients, teamwork, handling of disagreement and conflict, internal work motivation, and cultural sensitivity. The RPPE Scale has been translated into several languages but Filipino. The aim of this paper was to translate the RPPE Scale to the Filipino language in order to establish an initial evidence for construct equivalence between it and the original version.

Methods: Methodological design was used in the study following a four-step translation process. The data collection commenced in 2020.

Results: The RPPE scale was subjected to forward translation in Filipino language. It was then back translated into English after which the conceptual equivalence was determined for similarity of translation and comparability of interpretation. The results based on weighted means were highly similar and highly comparable.

Conclusions: The RPPE-Filipino version demonstrated an acceptable evidence of language- and culture-specificity that is sufficiently robust for use in Philippine setting. The existence of an instrument that is comparable and similar to the original RPPE Scale paves the way for initiating nursing staff development programs that are based on the tenets of professional practice environment.