Does empowerment enhance nurses' organizational commitment?
1Mount Mercy University, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA.
Aim:
We examined whether psychological empowerment was significantly associated with the organizational commitment of licensed practical nurses.
Background:
Healthcare organizations face unprecedented staffing challenges. This study provides insight into potential ways to ameliorate these issues.
Methods:
In early 2010, we distributed a 45-item questionnaire, based on established measures of psychological empowerment and organizational commitment, to the entire population of active, full-time licensed practical nurses throughout a Midwestern US state. Our sample consisted of 1165 respondents.
Results:
The results of our data analysis suggest that even after controlling for a range of potentially confounding variables, three subscales (meaning, self-determination and impact) were positively and associated with organizational commitment. However, one subscale (competence) was negatively related to the outcome.
Conclusions:
The psychological empowerment dimensions of impact, meaning and self-determination are associated with increased organizational commitment among licensed practical nurses.
Implications For Nursing Management:
Considering the profound staffing challenges facing the nursing profession-exacerbated by the current global pandemic and retirements-our findings provide nurse administrators with critical information to use in stemming the wave of nurses leaving the profession.
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