IPNG/IPG/Council Health Guidelines

Review these IPNG IPG Council Health guidelines before requesting permission to use the validated shared governance measurement instruments developed by Robert Hess, PhD, RN, FAAN.

Guidelines for Use: Index of Professional Nursing Governance, Index of Professional Governance, or Council Health

To use the IPNG, IPG, or Council Health, please follow the instructions below. Note that the IPNG or IPG cannot be interpreted without a subscale key, which the Forum provides once it grants permission. The reduced 50-item IPNG 3.0 and the IPG 3.0 became available in June, 2017. In addition, Council Health became available in July, 2017.

Agreement Terms

Researchers, administrators, and clinicians who use any version of the IPNG, IPG, or Council Health agree to:

  • Formally request use of the IPNG, IPG, or Council Health by sending an email to info@sharedgovernance.org or a letter to the Forum for Shared Governance, PO Box 8132, Hobe Sound, FL 33475.
  • Include a description of the intended use of the instruments along with the request. This description must contain contact information for a point person, including phone number and postal address.
  • Follow up the request with a phone call to (610) 805-8635 to finalize permission.
  • Report subsequent findings and/or raw data from the use of the IPNG, IPG, or Council Health, upon request, to author Robert Hess, PhD, RN, FAAN. The Forum uses this data for tracking use, evaluating the instruments, and for possible inclusion in research publication without identification of the institution.
  • Credit the use and author of the IPNG or IPG to Dr. Robert Hess, or of the Council Health survey to Drs. Jennifer Rheingans, Robert Hess, Diana Swihart, and Stacey Brull, in any publication of the research involving these survey instruments. If you plan to publish the results of your research, please read this helpful Dissemination FAQ.

Fees and Payment

For the IPNG or IPG, the Forum assesses a nominal $500 registration charge for each healthcare institution. For use of the Council Health survey, a charge of $250 applies for each organization for unlimited use during an annual rolling-calendar year. Furthermore, fee-based data support and consultation are available. Payment can be made by check, credit card, direct deposit, or PayPal (with an adjusted fee). However, students may use any of the instruments free of charge, depending on the intended use.

Validity and Reliability

A 2014 study, Measuring Perceptions of Shared Governance in Clinical Practice: Psychometric Testing of the RN-Focused Index of Professional Nursing Governance, updates and confirms the validity and reliability of the IPNG. Specifically, it correlates scores with measures of satisfaction obtained from National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQ), job enjoyment, and the desire to recommend the hospital as a place of employment. The original psychometric properties from the development of the 1994 IPNG instrument appear in Dr. Hess’s 1998 article, Measuring Nursing Governance.

In addition, the development and properties of the Council Health tool appear in the recently published Journal of Nursing Administration article, Council Health to Transform Shared Governance Processes and Practices.