Paper
Friday, July 13, 2007
This presentation is part of : EBN Education for BSN Students
Nursing Faculties' Use of Empowering Teaching Strategies in Baccalaureate Nursing Programs
Vera C. Brancato, Director for the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA, USA
Learning Objective #1: identify teaching strategies that promote empowerment in nursing students
Learning Objective #2: describe the elements of empowerment that build, develop, and increase the nursing student's ability to set and attain goals for individual and social ends
            Health care systems are undergoing dramatic change and restructuring in response to the increasing numbers of uninsured clients, increasing cost of health care, safety concerns, and quality of care issues. Because of their constant and direct interaction with patients, nurses are uniquely positioned to play a significant role in how health care is restructured. To better enable the nurses of tomorrow to fulfill this role, nurse educators must provide their students with the skills necessary to cope with the change and to assist with the redesign of health care delivery. Moreover faculties are challenged to instill in students a conviction that their input in the process is vital. Nurse empowerment may well be the key to the future success of the nursing profession and the larger health care delivery system. Thus, it is critical that nurse educators emphasize empowerment in their curricula.

The purpose of this study was to describe faculties’ use of empowering teaching behaviors in NLNAC-accredited undergraduate nursing programs. The random national sample consisted of 531 full-time faculty members (a response rate of 75%). Empowering teaching behaviors were measured using Part II of the Status and Promotion of Professional Nursing Practice Questionnaire (SPPNPQ) (Carlson-Catalano, 1988). This instrument consists of 40 teaching strategies that would promote empowerment for nursing students and is subdivided into the following four categories: analytic nursing, change activities, collegiality, and sponsorship. Analytic nursing activities relate to promotion of problem solving activities. Change activities involve ways to assist nurses to accept change and help nurses to engage in planning and implementing change activities. Collegiality strategies relate to activities that encourage peers to support each other through counseling and advisement. Sponsorship strategies include helping nurses to understand ways to gain support from administration. The average number of empowering teaching behaviors was 19.5/40.

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