Work empowerment as experienced by head nurses.
BACKGROUND
Head nurses have in the past few decades gained both more power and more responsibilities in their job. Their experience of work empowerment is not known.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to describe the verbal, behavioural and outcome empowerment experienced by head nurses.


METHODS
Data were collected using a structured questionnaire, which was sent to 259 head nurses. The data were analysed using statistical methods.


RESULTS
The results suggest that head nurses experience quite strong verbal and behavioural empowerment. They feel less confident in terms of outcome empowerment. Various factors, including stress and the capacity to handle the head nurse's job, were found to correlate with the empowerment experience.


CONCLUSIONS
It seems that head nurses do not have enough power to influence the effectiveness of their organization.
Suominen
Tarja
T
Department of Nursing Science, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. tasu@utu.fi
Savikko
Niina
N
Puukka
Pauli
P
Doran
Diane Irvine
DI
Leino-Kilpi
Helena
H
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009718:Nurse Administrators / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration*; D009745:Nursing, Supervisory / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011209:Power, Psychological; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D011361:Professional Competence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology