Empowerment Predicting Nurses' Work Motivation and Occupational Mental Health

Exploring the influence of the spiritual climate on psychological empowerment among nurses in China: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Psychological empowerment notably impacts nurses' work engagement and high-quality care. A spiritual climate is a work environment that respects individuals and encourages them to express personal views. Previous studies have shown that a spiritual climate enhances psychological empowerment, however, the relationship between them among the nursing population remains unclear. This study aimed to explore the effect of a spiritual climate on nurses' psychological empowerment and provide a scientific basis for improving psychological empowerment among nurses.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey of 837 nurses from five hospitals in Sichuan Province, Southwest China, was conducted using a convenience sampling method; this survey included nurses' demographic characteristics, the Psychological Empowerment Scale (PES), and the Chinese version of the Spiritual Climate Scale (C-SCS). The data were analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression.

RESULTS

The sample of 837 nurses attained a psychological empowerment score of (45.49 ± 6.42) and a spiritual climate score of (75.25 ± 16.75). The one-way ANOVA revealed that psychological empowerment scores among nurses varied based on differences in age, department, years of work experience, professional title, level of work intensity, and children (yes/no). Pearson's correlation analyses revealed a significant positive correlation between the spiritual climate and nurses' psychological empowerment (r = 0.564, P < 0.001), and multiple linear regression analysis showed that working in the intensive care unit (ICU), work intensity, and the four items pertaining to spiritual climate influenced nurses' psychological empowerment, explaining 32.6% of the total variance in psychological empowerment.

CONCLUSION

The findings suggested that the spiritual climate perceived by nurses and psychological empowerment are moderately high. Working in the ICU, work intensity, and the four items pertaining to spiritual climate influence nurses' psychological empowerment. Nursing managers should pay attention to the daily work intensity of nurses, especially ICU nurses, organize work tasks reasonably, promote dynamic and balanced nurse human resource deployment based on patients' conditions and nurses' workloads, and implement scientific scheduling plans to establish a positive spiritual climate in the workplace. Additionally, group workshops and systematic training programs can effectively enhance psychological empowerment among nurses.

Work engagement, psychological empowerment and relational coordination in long-term care: A mixed-method examination of nurses' perceptions and experiences

Nurse engagement, empowerment and strong relationships among staff, residents and families, are essential to attract and retain a suitably qualified and skilled nursing workforce for safe, quality care. There is, however, limited research that explores engagement, empowerment and relational coordination in long-term care (LTC). Nurses from an older persons' mental health and dementia LTC unit in Australia participated in this study. Forty-one nurses completed a survey measuring psychological empowerment, work engagement and relational coordination. Twenty-nine nurses participated in individual interviews to further explore these concepts. Although nurses reported high psychological empowerment and work engagement, their relationships with key stakeholders varied. Our findings suggest that nurses in LTC require both supports and opportunities to contribute as active members of the multiprofessional care team that includes tailored education, professional development and positive interactions within the care team. Regular support is needed to enable nurses to feel empowered, foster relationships and communication, and facilitate work engagement. Based on these findings, we suggest that it is important to find ways to ensure that all who provide care perceive that they are part of the whole care team and able to contribute to the care and well-being of people in LTC.

The Relationship Between Psychological Empowerment and Clinical Decision-Making Among Staff Nurses in Governmental Hospital in Al-Baha, Saudi Arabia

Background The Saudi Arabian government has published its 2030 vision for improving health care to meet worldwide standards for the nursing profession. To fulfill this vision, building large-scale healthcare facilities is necessary. Among the most common occupations, nursing is vital to health care systems. Although working in health care institutions is challenging, demanding, and comprehensive, they are created to save lives and enhance patient satisfaction. Therefore, health care organizations must seek to develop psychologically empowered and decision-making nurses who can help meet clients' demands and enhance patient care, safety, quality, and outcomes. This study aims to determine the association between psychological empowerment (PE) and clinical decision-making (CDM) among staff nurses. Methods This study employed a quantitative cross-sectional correlation design. Three Saudi Ministry of Health-affiliated hospitals in the Al-Baha region were included. The sample size was calculated using the Raosoft online sample size calculator, with a total of 318 participants. The study sample included nurses working in inpatient, outpatient, and critical care departments. Convenience sampling techniques with inclusion and exclusion criteria were employed. An online survey with three sections was used for data collection: sociodemographic characteristics, the psychological empowerment instrument, and the nursing decision-making instrument. Data collection began at the beginning of February 2023 and was completed by the beginning of April 2023. Results The participants were 318 nurses working in critical areas, inpatient, and outpatient departments at three governmental hospitals in the Al-Baha region. Overall, 285 participants (89.6%) had a high level of PE, and the majority, 263 participants (82.7%), exhibited flexible-oriented decision-making. Approximately three-quarters of the sample, 281 participants (88.4%), were female, and more than half of the staff nurses, 187 participants (58.8%), were married. The majority of participants, 250 (78.6%), had a bachelor's degree. Regarding professional experience, most staff nurses, 134 participants (42.1%), had between one and five years of experience, and the majority worked in inpatient units, 160 participants (50.3%), while 104 (32.7%) worked in critical care. Conclusion The current study found a significant association between nurses' PE and CDM. Nurses with the highest PE were the most flexible in their CDM. Moreover, the findings of this study offer some points that nurse managers and leaders can use to generate empowerment and make their staff better decision-makers. One recommendation is to develop training and coaching programs to enhance PE among staff nurses, thereby raising their work meaningfulness, which would reflect in better CDM. Additionally, this study recommends that future research be conducted to examine how PE affects CDM.

Authentic Leadership and Its Role in Registered Nurses' Mental Health and Experiences of Workplace Bullying

Introduction

Bullying is a widespread problem in healthcare organizations, resulting in nurses' poor mental health. Effective leadership, such as authentic leadership, may help to overcome this problem.

Objective

To examine the relationship between authentic leadership, workplace bullying, and nurses' mental health, controlling for demographic characteristics.

Methods

A descriptive correlational design was utilized with a sample of 170 nurses. Nurses were recruited from four private hospitals in Jordan and completed a survey about their perception of managers' authentic leadership, their experience of workplace bullying, and their mental health.

Results

About 48.8%, 25.9%, and 25.3% were categorized as "not bullied," "occasionally bullied," and "severely bullied," respectively. Participant nurses had mild depression (m = 12.11) and moderate anxiety (m = 10.92). Workplace bullying was higher among nurses who earn less than 600 Jordanian dinars and nurses working in the smallest hospital, with 130 beds. Authentic leadership explains 6% of the variance of workplace bullying, 3% of anxiety, 7% of stress, and 7% of depression above and beyond the variance explained by other variables.

Conclusions

Healthcare organizations are facing a challenge in providing a healthy work environment. Employing authentic leadership in the workplace could be one of the factors that could help in addressing this issue.

A Shorter Form of the Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale: Construction and Factorial Validation

While workplace mental health has attracted attention in many countries, work motivation remains under-researched. Research identified that work motivation is associated with many organisational positive outcomes including workplace mental health. One well-recognised measure is the Work Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation Scale (WEIMS). Conceptualised on the Self-Determination Theory, this 18-item scale examines six types of work motivation: Intrinsic Motivation, Integrated Regulation, Identified Regulation, Introjected Regulation, External Regulation, and Amotivation. WEIMS can be too long for busy people at work. Accordingly, we constructed and validated a shorter form of WEIMS (SWEIMS), comprising 12 items that evaluate the same six work motivation types. Data collected from two professional samples were analysed to construct and validate the factorial structure: 155 construction workers (138 males and 17 females, Age 40.28 ± 11.05) and 103 hospitality workers (47 males and 56 females, Age 28.2 ± 8.6 years). Correlation analyses and confirmatory factor analyses were performed. Two items from each type were selected based on the strength of correlations with the target WEIMS subscale. SWEIMS demonstrated adequate internal consistency (α ≧ 0.65), and strong correlations with the original version of WEIMS (r = 0.73) in both samples. SWEIMS confirmatory factor analysis replicated the six-factor model of the original SWEIMS. SWEIMS can be a reliable, valid, and user-friendly alternative to WEIMS.

Caregiver Representations of Therapeutic Patient Education Programmes for People with Schizophrenia: A Qualitative Study

Background: In France, there are two main types of psychosocial educational therapies for people with mental disorders: (1) therapeutic patient education (TPE) or “training”, and (2) psychoeducation. Both types of educational therapy aim to improve disease morbidity, treatment compliance and patient quality of life, but they have very different modes of application. The aim of this study was to interview mental health professionals in order to explore and identify the determinants (barriers and enablers) underlying their acceptance of therapeutic patient education (TPE) in order to facilitate the implementation of these programmes among people with severe mental illness such as schizophrenia. Methods: In this multicentre cross-sectional study, we opted for a qualitative approach based on individual semi-structured interviews with 21 mental health professionals trained in TPE, regardless of whether they had practiced it before or not. In accordance with the “Jardé” law (Decree no 2016-1537 dated 16 November 2016 published on 17 November 2016 in the Official Journal of the French Republic). No regulatory approval was required for this study. Results: The major themes that emerged from the analysis were grouped into the following conceptual framework: (1) mental health professionals (MHPs) highlight important organizational and institutional challenges that they feel are beyond their scope; (2) MHPs mention in parallel their own perceptions and representations of TPE in the context of mental health care; and (3) MHPs’ representations could hide a lack of knowledge or awareness that would prevent them from appropriating TPE programmes. For each major theme, the sub-themes identified are presented. Conclusions: Although TPE is of interest in the process of patient empowerment, we found that caregivers were reluctant to appropriate this approach to care. Efforts must be made in the initial and ongoing training of MHPs to move from a paternalistic model to a patient partnership model, which is made possible by TPE. These efforts must also be firmly supported by health care facilities, and proactive governance is required for the successful implementation of TPE.

Structural and psychological empowerment and organizational commitment among staff nurses in Jordan

AIM

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, and organizational commitment in Jordanian staff nurses.

BACKGROUND

Empowering nurses is one of the most effective strategies for increasing efficiency. Therefore, studying the contribution of structural and psychological empowerment to organizational commitment will provide a base for future interventions to improve nurses' working environment.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional study used snowball sampling to recruit staff nurses working in Jordanian public and private hospitals. The sample consisted of 180 nurses. Data were collected using three valid and reliable self-reporting questionnaires that were distributed in electronic format.

RESULTS

Nurses reported a moderate level of both structural and psychological empowerment, and a high level of organizational commitment. Significant positive relationships were found between structural empowerment and psychological empowerment and organizational commitment (r = .62, p < .001) and (r = .57, p < .001) respectively.

CONCLUSION

Staff nurses reported moderate levels of both structural and psychological empowerment, and have a high level of organizational commitment. Positive relationships between structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, and organizational commitment were found among Jordanian staff nurses.