Staff empowerment in intensive care: nurses' and physicians' lived experiences

The purpose of the study was to describe empowerment from the perspective of intensive care staff. What makes intensive care staff experience inner strength and power?

Intensive care staff are repeatedly exposed to traumatic situations and demanding events, which could result in stress and burnout symptoms. A higher level of psychological empowerment at the workplace is associated with increased work satisfaction and mental health, fewer burnout symptoms and a decreased number of sick leave days.

Open-ended interviews were conducted with 12 intensive care unit (ICU) staff (four registered nurses, four enrolled nurses and four physicians) in southern Sweden. Data were analysed using a phenomenological method.

Intensive care staff were found to be empowered both by internal processes such as feelings of doing good, increased self-esteem/self-confidence and increased knowledge and skills, and by external processes such as nourishing meetings, well functioning teamwork and a good atmosphere.

Findings show that not only personal knowledge and skills, but also a supporting atmosphere and a good teamwork, has to be focused and encouraged by supervisors in order to increase staff's experiences of empowerment. Staff also need a chance to feel that they do something good for patients, next of kin and other staff members.