Perceptions of staff nurses to the concept of power

The purpose of this exploratory, descriptive study was to investigate the perceptions of staff nurses from two hospitals in the midwest to the concept of power. The investigation of the concept is important because it will give information pertaining to whether staff nurses see themselves as leaders in the health care arena. An analysis was made of the responses of staff nurses from a small hospital with responses of staff nurses from a larger hospital to the Allen Power Questionnaire which was developed by the author. Significant differences were found between groups for items related to associative, position and coercive power. No differences were shown with items which dealt with reward, referent or expert power.