Empowerment: What can Nurse Leaders Do to Encourage an Empowering Environment for Nurses Working in the Mental Health Area?

摘要

Nurses, as the majority of the mental health workforce have a valuable contribution tomake at a policy development level. The 1998 report from the Ministerial Taskforceon Nursing supports this statement but also indicates that there is a general reluctanceby nurses to participate in policy development. For nurses to have control over theirpractice they need to have input into policy development.Nurses having control over their practice has been linked to nursing empowerment.Therefore the question explored in this research project is: What can nurse leaders doto encourage an empowering environment for nurses working in the mental healtharea? The literature reviewed for this project includes empowerment, power, thehistory of nursing in relation to women's role in society, oppression and resistance,and literature on Critical Social Theory as the underlying theoretical and philosophicalposition which informs the research process.In order to answer the research question a single focus group was used to gather datafrom a group of registered nurses practising in mental health. Focus groups as a datacollection method produce data and insights that would be less accessible without theinteraction found in the group. The key themes to emerge from the data analysis were;power is an important component of empowerment and power relationships; and at asystems level, professional, organisational, and political influences impact on feelingsof empowerment and/or disempowerment. These key themes are discussed in relationto the literature and the broader social and cultural context of the mental health careenvironment. The contribution this research makes to nursing includes a list ofrecommendations for nurse leaders who aim to provide an empowering environmentfor nurses practising in mental health.