Educating Tomorrow's Nurse Leaders: Testing a Model Examining BScN Students' Perceptions of Empowerment and Reflective Thinking

Lethbridge, Kristen

Tuesday, 1 November 2011: 10:00 AM

Kristen Lethbridge, BScN, RN, MScN, PhD
Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Mary-Anne Andrusyszyn, RN, MScN, EdD
Faculty of Health Sciences, Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Carroll Iwasiw, RN, BN, MScN, EdD
Arthur Labatt School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Heather K. S. Laschinger, RN, PhD
Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Rajulton Fernando, PhD
Faculty of Social Science, Department of Sociology, The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

Learning Objective 1: The learner will advance their understanding of three concepts important in nursing classroom and practice learning environments: structural empowerment, psychological empowerment, and reflective thinking.

Learning Objective 2: To gain knowledge of the preliminary evidence generated in this study, supporting a model testing the relationships among students’ perceptions of empowerment and reflective thinking.

Purpose

Baccalaureate education prepares students to become nurses and leaders in a transforming health care system. Educational environments must allow students opportunities to develop and refine knowledge and skills to become life-long learners and practice competently. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to simultaneously test Kanter’s (1977, 1993) theory of structural power in organizations, Spreitzer’s (1995) conceptualization of psychological empowerment and Mezirow’s (1991) descriptions of non-reflective and reflective action with a provincial sample of baccalaureate nursing students. Students’ perceptions of these concepts in both classroom and practice learning environments were sought.

Methods

Ethical approval was secured from four universities and six colleges in Ontario. Questionnaire booklets were administered during classes at two points in time. A matched sample of data from 538 student participants was used to examine changes over time in regards to both classroom and practice learning environments. Latent growth curve modeling was used to test relationships among the three main study variables.

Results

A direct, positive, statistically significant relationship between structural and psychological empowerment for initial levels and rates of change in both classroom and practice environments was found. Psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between structural empowerment and reflective thinking. The results of the impact of initial values and changes in empowerment variables on changes in reflective thinking were different depending on the learning environment.

Conclusion

Preliminary evidence for understanding how students perceive three key concepts together in their educational environments and continuing to examine the relationships among these concepts was generated in this study. Implications for nurse educators include advancing understanding of how students’ perceptions of access to empowerment structures influences their experiences of personal empowerment and engagement in reflective thinking, the learning outcome. Educating students with an understanding of these concepts together may provide them transferable skills, better preparing them to be future leaders in the profession.

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