Paper
Sunday, November 4, 2007

341
This presentation is part of : Nursing Education Updates
Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Perceptions of Empowerment Over Time
Kristen Lethbridge, BScN, RN, MScN1, Mary-Anne Andrusyszyn, RN, BScN, MScN, EdD1, Carroll L. Iwasiw, RN, BN, MScN, EdD1, Heather K. S. Laschinger, RN, PhD2, and Rajulton Fernando, PhD3. (1) Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, (2) School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada, (3) Faculty of Social Science, Department of Sociology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Learning Objective #1: gain an understanding of student perceptions of empowerment in both classroom and clinical learning environments.
Learning Objective #2: appreciate changes in student perceptions of empowerment in a collaborative program.
University education is important in preparing nurses for the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly evolving health care system. To support baccalaureate entry to practice, colleges and universities have partnered to develop collaborative programs, whereby whole or specific aspects of the programs are carried out at more than one educational site. In some models, students who complete the first two years at the college site transition to the university site to complete years three and four. In this study, three collaborative programs had the transition structure, and the comparison group included students who completed all four years of study at either the university or college site in which they originally enrolled.

The purpose of this quantitative, longitudinal study was to test Kanter’s (1977, 1993) theory of Structural Power in Organizations with baccalaureate nursing students. The model to be tested, hypothesized changes in students’ perceptions of empowerment would impact changes in reflective thinking, as they transitioned from year 2 to 3.

Data were collected in September 2006, and March 2007, and completed questionnaires from 873 participants at four collaborative programs across Ontario were analyzed. Instruments included:  the Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire – Education (CWEQ ED) (Siu & Laschinger, 2003); the Psychological Empowerment Scale – Education (PES ED) (Laschinger & Siu, 2003); and the Reflection Questionnaire (Kember et al., 2000) to measure structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, and reflective thinking, respectively. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model. The analysis presented in this paper will address empowerment variables.

Examining students’ perceptions of empowerment within collaborative educational environments (classroom and clinical) over this transitional time in their program, contributes information nurse educators can use to develop and sustain learning activities that promote learning that is empowering.

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