Nurses' perceived work-related empowerment in Lithuanian context

Abstract

STUDY'S RATIONALE: Empowerment is widely used within the nursing literature in different countries, but perceived empowerment of Lithuanian nurses has not been studied before. There is a lack of research which has analysed nurses' views and feelings of empowerment.

Aims and objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the perception of Lithuanian nurses' work-related empowerment. The study describes how empowered the nurses felt in their work and how background factors were related to empowerment.

Ethical issues: The permission to use the questionnaire was given by copyright holders. The questionnaire was approved by the Ethics Committee. RESEARCH METHODS AND INSTRUMENT: The data were collected using a structured questionnaire comprised of two parts: the background questions and the Work Empowerment Questionnaire divided into three areas: verbal, behavioural, and outcome empowerment. The data were analysed statistically using SPSS, and Microsoft Excel programs. The descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests and Spearman correlations were conducted. The sample consisted of 212 participants.

Results: The nurses experienced strong general empowerment (mean 7.9; max 10.0). They were more confident in their abilities to perform actions related to behavioural (mean 8.3) and verbal (mean 8.0) empowerment, and less confident in outcome (mean 7.3) empowerment. All aspects of empowerment were closely related to each other (p ≤ 0.001). Several significant relations were found between the aspects of empowerment and the background variables.

Study limitations: The Work Empowerment Questionnaire used in the study was originally developed in Canada. Differences in language, culture, health care organizations, and nursing practice may affect the validity of translated questionnaire in Baltic context.

Conclusions: To prepare nurses for roles in which they may successfully exercise the power to create change, they need experience the process of empowerment during their education, and experience later supportive management.