Analysis of powerlessness in nursing work

Despite the plethora of articles on work environment and nursing power in the recent nursing literature, we have yet to improve nurses' experience of work in any significant way. In fact, as hospital budgets come increasingly under attack in the name of health care reform, nursing work is becoming even more demanding and, to many, less satisfying This article describes the experience of powerlessness by a sample of hospital staff nurses in British Columbia. It analyses the themes which characterize powerless work situations and explores the impact of these on nurses. It suggests some ways of bringing about change in these circumstances of work. The article intends to illuminate, for those who care to understand, the complexity and often insurmountable challenges that nurses encounter in the course of their nursing work. It urges us to create opportunities to make the increasingly difficult and frustrating circumstances of nursing work visible to key decision makers.