Psychological Empowerment in Iranian Clinical Nurses

Introduction &

Stress and perceived threats in the workplace are global phenomena in nursing. Psychological empowering can act as a buffer against stress and improve the quality of the provided care. This study was designed to explain theoretically the psychological empowering of Iranian clinical nurses.

In this qualitative study fourteen nurses and four head-nurses from hospitals connected with Orumieh University of medical sciences were selected through purposive sampling. Data was collected by deep interview with semi-structural questions. Finally data was analyzed using the conventional qualitative content analysis.

Data analysis resulted in the emergence of three main themes of self-assistance، management behaviors، self-efficacy and eight related sub themes. Nurses empowered themselves psychologically by integrating the three mentioned themes.

Psychological empowering is a dynamic and multi-dimensional concept with a complex nature which is influenced by personal and managing measures. With adopting empowering and supportive behavior and with creating opportunity for growth and professional development of nurses، managers can ensure their staff''s psychological empowerment which can lead to the improvement of the quality of their provided care. Nursing instructors and teachers by instructing self-empowering methods can train efficient workforces who are resistant against workplace stress.