Aim To report an assessment of the psychometric properties of the Professional Practice Environment (PPE) scale in a sample of Australian nurse educators in acute care hospitals.

Background Although nurse educators are important in an enabling work environment, there has been no reported exploration of their satisfaction with work in acute care hospitals.

Discussion The factor structure and internal consistency of the PPE scale were consistent with Erickson’s eight-factor model of the items, indicating the appropriateness of the scale as an assessment tool to measure the PPE of nurse educators.

Conclusion The PPE scale is useful for monitoring the work environment of nurse educators in clinical practice and the environmental effects influencing their recruitment, retention and job satisfaction.

Implications for practice This work may inform the development of integrated professional practice environments where the professional practice and workplace satisfaction of nurse educators are optimised, influencing safe, quality patient care.