Paper
Thursday, July 22, 2004
9:30 AM - 10:00 AM
Thursday, July 22, 2004
2:30 PM - 3:00 PM
This presentation is part of : Posters I
Interrelationships of Partnership and Empowerment Concepts: A New Framework for Community Health Development
Chih-Ling Huang, RN, MPH1, Chi-Chun Chin, RN, PhD2, and Hsiu-Hung Wang, RN, PhD2. (1) Department of Nursing, Chang Jung Christian University, Tainan, Taiwan, Taiwan, (2) College of Nursing, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Taiwan
Learning Objective #1: n/a
Learning Objective #2: n/a
Background: In literature, the concepts of partnership and empowerment are dichotomously analyzed but synchronously employed in health services. The terms and meanings of partnership and empowerment are reciprocally used to explain respective characteristics of partnership and empowerment. However, the interrelationships between these two concepts are very little addressed.

Object: The purposes of this study are to highlight the interrelationships between partnership and empowerment in the nursing-client relationship (where the client is an individual, family or community). An innovative framework that combines these significant nursing concepts then is proposed and applied in a practical setting.

Methods: This study is based on a systematic literature review and applied an integrated framework of partnership and empowerment to a community health development project.

Findings: Through four common themes, namely equality, interpersonal transaction, mutuality, and power sharing and transferring, a double bond framework is proposed to delineate more thorough interactions between nurses and clients than independent use of partnership or empowerment. A specific example, namely a three-year community health development project funded and honored publicly by both of the Department of Health of Taiwan and Tainan County Health Bureau, represents an application of the double bond framework.

Conclusions: The double bond framework provides an innovative and generic paradigm for synthesizing the concepts of partnership and empowerment in the nurse-client relationship. This framework can also be applied in other settings effectively.

Implications: Empirical research, either qualitative or quantitative approaches, is needed to verify the presence of the double bond framework of partnership and empowerment and to explore factors influencing the establishment of the combined concepts within the nurse-client relationship. This innovative framework can also provide a theoretical foundation for the practice development of the synthesized concepts of partnership and empowerment in the nurse-client relationship.

Keywords: Partnership, empowerment, double bond framework, nurse-client relationship, community health.

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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 22-24, 2004