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Abstract:
According to the Institute of Medicine, nursing has failed to effectively shape the health care system and to advocate successfully for patients. Empowerment may be a potent tool to fulfill these responsibilities, yet nurses have not benefited from considering application of the concept to the continuum of health care advocacy in their communities, in their relationships with clients, and in their professional roles within health care organizations. This paper uses concept analysis to examine the attributes, characteristics, and uses of empowerment within diverse disciplines to clarify its meaning and explore its potential application to nursings challenges that cross settings, disciplines, and time.
Key Words: Advocacy, empowerment, multidisciplinary, nursing profession, power
Empowerment is a potent tool for nursing to influence patient safety, quality of care and equitable access to care (Beason, 2005; Busch, 2003; Dingle-Stewart & LaCoste, 2004). Public concern with these issues arose from a seminal report issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses (2004) identified nursings failure to effectively shape the health care system and to advocate successfully for healthier communities, individuals, and for nurses themselves.
A clear understanding of empowerment is necessary for nurses to take advantage of this important tool. The concept of empowerment, however, is ambiguous and abstract and has been used in diverse disciplines with distinctly different meanings, dependent upon context and perspective. The authors employed methods of concept analysis derived from Walker & Avant (1995) to examine the attributes, characteristics and applications of empowerment in nursing and other disciplines. This analysis clarified the meaning of empowerment and its potential to influence the role of nurses in community advocacy, nursing care of individuals, and empowerment of nurses within health care organizations.
Seven formal concept analyses of empowerment have appeared in the nursing literature (Ellis-Stoll & Popkess-Vawter, 1998; Gibson, 1991; Hawks, 1992; Kuokkanen, 2000; Rodwell, 1996; Ryles, 1999; Skelton, 1994); however, this concept analysis is unique for two reasons. A multidisciplinary perspective enabled the authors to explore empowerment's influence across time, disciplines, and settings. Despite reluctance of earlier investigators to operationalize the concept, authors of this analysis provide clear evidence that empowerment can be measured.
Literature Review
A literature search of empowerment was conducted with keywords limited to empower and...