Investigation of the Correlation between Psychological Empowerment and Its Components with Psychological Strain in Nurses

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Psychological strain is one of the prevalent problems in nursing profession, which can lead to unpleasant consequences; also, psychological empowerment is of great importance due to its effects on nursing professional practice. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the correlation between psychological empowerment and its components with psychological strain in nurses.   Methods: This descriptive - correlational study was performed on 308 nurses working in 6 educational hospitals of Qom city in 2017. Samples were selected through census method and according to the inclusion criteria. Data collection tools included a 12-question questionnaire (5 degrees scale) of Spreitzer's Psychological Empowerment, and a 10-question questionnaire (5 degrees scale) of Psychological Strain (Osipow).   Results: The mean psychological empowerment was determined 3.90±0.61 and the mean amount of psychological strain was 2.48±0.85 .According to the results of regression analysis, among predictor variables (psychological empowerment components), autonomy and impact, were significant at the error level less than 0.05. Among them, the greatest influence of empowerment was related to the autonomy component, which inversely predicts psychological strain.   Conclusion: The results of this study showed that empowering nurses as much as possible in clinical settings and in “autonomy” component of psychological empowerment components, can reduce their psychological strain. This issue reveals the need to pay attention to the planning in the field of empowerment of nurses in clinical settings.    

Keywords

• empowerment (psychology)
• psychological strain
• clinical nurses.