Client empowerment: a nursing challenge

Client empowerment is an emerging, fashionable concept in healthcare today. There is, however, a lack of a clear conceptual definition because of the competing paradigms used to explain it. This article uses published literature and personal observation to explore how the clinical nurse specialist (CNS) can use both the psychological/micromodel and the political/macromodel in clinical practice. There also is opportunity for the CNS to conduct research regarding client empowerment as an effective nursing intervention. For client empowerment to occur, the CNS must lead the way into a radical redistribution of power between the client and the nurse.