Liisa Kuokkanen

Lithuanian nurses’ assessments of their empowerment

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES The aim was to explore nurse empowerment and the factors associated with it from the viewpoint of surgical nurses. DESIGN A multicentre cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational study design was used. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS   The data were collected from 11 units of seven largest Lithuanian hospitals located in three major cities during the period of 11/2007 to 01/2008. All the nurses (N = 270) working in the abdominal perioperative settings were invited to participate in the study; 247 questionnaires were returned giving the response rate of 91 %. The data were analyzed on the basis of 218 responses. The statistical analysis was performed by SPSS (12.0 version). INSTRUMENTS Two instruments, both originally developed in Finland and adapted to the Lithuanian cultural context, were used: Nurse Empowerment Scale (NES) and Good Nursing Care Scale for Nurses (GNCS-N). RESULTS Surgical nurses evaluated their work empowerment positively. Several background factors were associated with nurse empowerment, such as nurse education, type of nurse license (working area), the continuing nurse education (completed courses during last 5 years), the workload at hospital, the work independence, and work satisfaction. The connection between nurse empowerment and quality of nursing care was also identified (r = 0.139-0.525, p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS Surgical nurses feel empowered at their work when they have higher education and have completed the continuing education courses. Nurses should have possibility to continue their studies at the university. Independent at work, satisfied, and motivated nurses have more power at their work in the surgical units in Lithuania. However, further research is needed to explore nurse empowerment in other fields of nursing care nationally and internationally.

Does Organizational Justice Predict Empowerment? Nurses Assess Their Work Environment

PURPOSE The purpose of the study was to explore how nurses assess their empowerment and clarify organizational justice compared to other work-related factors. In addition, we examined the major variables pertinent to empowerment. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey data were used. METHODS A total of 2,152 nurses returned the completed questionnaire. The instruments consisted of nurse empowerment, organizational justice, job control, and possibilities for developing work. The data analysis was based on descriptive statistics and further statistical tests. FINDINGS Organizational justice and empowerment had a clear correlation. Job control, possibilities for developing work and organizational justice were statistically significant predictors of nurse empowerment. CONCLUSIONS Organizational justice and the possibility to use ones individual skills at work are significant factors in staff activity and its development in nursing. They increase the level of empowerment and commitment as well as motivation to work. CLINICAL RELEVANCE The results of this study confirm that nurses regard organizational justice as highly important. We can facilitate both work-related empowerment and organizational justice by creating and maintaining a culture of fairness and justice. Employees should be heard and involved more in the planning and decision making of work.

Newly graduated nurses’ empowerment regarding professional competence and other work-related factors

BackgroundAlthough both nurse empowerment and competence are fundamental concepts of describing newly graduated nurses’ professional development and job satisfaction, only few studies exist on the relationship between these concepts. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine how newly graduated nurses assess their empowerment and to clarify professional competence compared to other work-related factors.MethodsA descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational design was applied. The sample comprised newly graduated nurses (n = 318) in Finland. Empowerment was measured using the 19-item Qualities of an Empowered Nurse scale and the Nurse Competence Scale measured nurses’ self-assessed generic competence. In addition to demographic data, the background data included employment sector (public/private), job satisfaction, intent to change/leave job, work schedule (shifts/business hours) and assessments of the quality of care in the workplace. The data were analysed statistically by using Spearman’s correlation coefficient as well as the One-Way and Multivariate Analysis of Variance. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was used to estimate the internal consistency.ResultsNewly graduated nurses perceived their level of empowerment and competence fairly high. The association between nurse empowerment and professional competence was statistically significant. Other variables correlating positively to empowerment included employment sector, age, job satisfaction, intent to change job, work schedule, and satisfaction with the quality of care in the work unit. The study indicates competence had the strongest effect on newly graduated nurses’ empowerment.ConclusionsNew graduates need support and career opportunities. In the future, nurses’ further education and nurse managers’ resources for supporting and empowering nurses should respond to the newly graduated nurses’ requisites for attractive and meaningful work.

Organizational vision: experience at the unit level.

AIMS The main focus of this follow-up study was to describe how the vision statements were perceived to describe the work in the units and what kind of relationships there were between the vision statements and background factors during the 3-year follow-up. BACKGROUND he vision statement gives a competitive advantage to the organization. It helps find the desired direction during a period of transformation in the organization. Satisfaction, empowerment and motivation are challenged in the vision-realization process. METHODS he data were gathered by questionnaire from the multidisciplinary team members on three occasions. The response rate was 58% (n = 115, n = 112) for the first and second data sets, and 53% (n = 103) for the third data set. The data was analysed statistically. RESULTS The organizational vision was perceived as quite stable during the 3 years. Factors associated with the vision statement at the end of the 3-year period were workload, experience of stress, work motivation, work satisfaction, importance of work independence and general empowerment. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT eaders are able to sustain the vision statement by motivating and empowering the staff. Empowerment especially is worth reinforcing in a vision-realization process.