Purpose
This study was conducted to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Korean version of the Healthy Work Environment Assessment Tool (K-HWEAT), originally developed by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Methods: The study was conducted among nurses working at three university hospitals located in metropolitan areas between May 29 and October 10, 2019. A total of 543 nurses participated. Data were analyzed using AMOS version 26.0 to assess the construct validity of the K-HWEAT. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis initially failed to meet acceptable model fit indices. Model fit improved after reassigning item 1 from factor 1 to factor 2 and item 12 from factor 4 to factor 6, as well as allowing correlated error terms based on high modification indices. Following these adjustments, standardized root mean square residual remained unchanged (0.05 to 0.05) and root mean square error of approximation decreased from 0.09 to 0.07, whereas goodness of fit index increased from 0.88 to 0.91, adjusted goodness of fit index from 0.83 to 0.86, Normed Fit Index from 0.85 to 0.89, and comparative fit index from 0.88 to 0.92. The K-HWEAT demonstrated a moderate correlation with the Korean version of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (r=.60, p<.001), supporting criterion validity. The overall Cronbach’s α was .92, with the six factors showing internal consistency coefficients ranging from 0.62 to 0.74. Conclusion: These findings support the reliability and validity of the K-HWEAT. However, further conceptual refinement of individual items may be necessary to enhance construct clarity.

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to identify the relationship between job stress and turnover intention and the mediating effect of job embeddedness on the relationship among hospital nurses in rural areas. Methods: This is a descriptive study. A total of 277 registered nurses were enrolled in the study from three hospitals in rural areas of South Korea from April 29 to May 10, 2019. The participants completed self-reporting questionnaires, which measured job stress, turnover intention, and job embeddedness, and collected demographic information. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0, for multiple regression, and a simple mediation model applying the Hayes PROCESS macro with a 95% bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval (5,000 bootstrap resampling). Results: Job stress had a direct effect (c’=0.35, p<.001) on turnover intention. It was also demonstrated that job embeddedness partially mediated the relationship between job stress and turnover intention among the hospital nurses (a ․ b=-0.40 × -0.58=0.23, 95% Boot C). Conclusion: The job stress and turnover intention of nurses in rural areas are not higher than those in large cities. Nevertheless, hospital administrators need to provide a nursing workforce policy to increase job embeddedness and reduce nurses’ turnover intention.

Citations

• Effects of Role Conflict, Work Environment, and Meaning of Work on Job Embeddedness among Physician Assistants
  Kwang Hoon Seo, Tae Yeong Yang, Nam Gyu Park, Jung Eun Park
  Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration.2025; 31(3): 249.     CrossRef
• Moderating Effect of Job Satisfaction in the Relationship Between Nursing Work Environment and Turnover Intention: A Perspective From Magnet Hospitals in South Korea
  Wonji Lee, Soyoung Yu
  Sage Open.2025;[Epub]     CrossRef
• Effect of Nursing Professionalism on Turnover Intention among Nurses: The Mediating Effect of Job Embeddedness
  Ja In Kim, Seok Hee Jeong, Hyoung Eun Chang, Sunmi Kim
  Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration.2025; 31(4): 446.     CrossRef