Structural empowerment and nurses' patient identification behaviors: a cross-sectional study

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Patient identification is critical for safe medication administration and transfusion.
• Nurses' empowerment is increasingly recognized as a factor influencing patient care quality.
• Understanding the link between structural empowerment and nurses' behaviors is essential for improving healthcare outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between structural empowerment and nurses' patient identification behaviors.
• To identify specific components of structural empowerment that correlate with effective patient identification.

Main Methods:

• A descriptive survey design was employed with 984 registered nurses in a South Korean hospital.
• Data were collected using a self-reported questionnaire.
• Statistical analyses included t-tests, ANOVA, Scheffé's test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis.

Main Results:

• Nurses' patient identification behaviors showed significant correlations with opportunity, support, information, resources, formal power, and informal power of structural empowerment.
• Support, information, and informal power, along with participant age and gender, explained 10.7% of the variance in patient identification behaviors.

Conclusions:

• Structural empowerment is a significant predictor of nurses' patient identification behaviors.
• Nursing managers should foster work environments that provide support, information, and resources to enhance nurses' empowerment and patient safety.
• Further research is recommended to explore structural empowerment across multiple organizations and identify influencing organizational characteristics.