[Application of empowering education in long-term care facilities: the experience with foreign nurse aides]

The concept of empowerment, widely accepted and utilized in many health-related disciplines, connotes a process of gaining control over one's life and influencing the organizational and social structures in which one lives. This article demonstrates an example of how empowering education can be applied on foreign nursing aides working in long-term care facilities and how differing empowering strategies, processes and effects can be adopted to address differing situations and ethnic backgrounds. How high priority issues of concern for foreign nurses are handled impacts upon their ability to perform their jobs well. Empowering strategies can help deal with such issues more effectively and, as a result, reduce work stress and improve on-the-job performance. During the preparation stage, the empowerment process focuses on building a trusting partner relationship. During the work stage, the process focuses on inspiring foreign nurses' self-awareness, encouraging their perceiving the barriers and needs at work, and, most importantly, encouraging nurses to think critically and positively and to provide feedback. The effects of empowering education include enhanced problem solving abilities, rising nurse self-confidence in his/her caretaking abilities, enhanced self-esteem, and improved adaptation to the work environment. This paper provides empirical experiences with regard to the application of empowering education in clinical settings as well as process and management strategies related to foreign nursing aides employed in long-term care facilities.