Measuring Nursing Workarounds Tests of the Reliability and Validity of a Tool

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to validate a new tool to measure nursing workarounds. BACKGROUND: Workarounds are situations where one experiences a block in workflow and, rather than complete the work process as intended, creates an idiosyncratic solution to get around the block. There are limited options for validated measures of workarounds for researchers and administrators. METHODS: To validate the tool, we conducted a survey of registered nurses that included the newly developed tool of workarounds, and measures of deviance and job crafting. RESULTS: We found evidence for the content, factorial, discriminant, and criterion-related validity of the new workaround tool. Furthermore, the tool demonstrated adequate internal consistency and test-retest reliability. CONCLUSIONS: Interest in workarounds has been rapidly growing; however, high-quality research in this area has been limited by an inability to validly measure workarounds. This study represents an important step in fostering new research in workarounds.