Learning Objective #1: Describe the influence/overlap of work empowerment and work satisfaction

Learning Objective #2: Identify the importance of work empowerment and work satisfaction to retention of hospital nurses

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PURPOSE. This study explored the relationship between empowerment and work satisfaction among acute care nurses. FRAMEWORK. Laschinger's framework, based on Kantor's (1979) Structural Theory of Power in Organizations, indicates a nurse's location in both formal and informal systems influences the access to important structures like opportunities, resources, information, and support which in turn lead to work satisfaction and organizational commitment which ultimately result in client satisfaction and other key outcomes. DESIGN. A secondary data analysis used data from a multi-year study of nurses' perceptions of their work environment to examine the validity of Laschinger's framework. SAMPLE. From a 1-year sample of 216 usable surveys, 125 randomly selected surveys were used in the training set and the remaining 91 for cross-validation. A second year sample of 260 was compared to the original model building year. SETTING. A 800-bed Midwest not-for-profit teaching hospital had a RN workforce of approximately 1300. INSTRUMENTS. Laschinger's Conditions of Work Effectiveness and Stamps's Index of Work Satisfaction were used. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS. Model selection methods and cross-validation were used to determine the final model (67.64716+11.23906*SUPPORT+10.51577*OPPORT+14.44846*RESOURCE), which indicates that opportunities (p=0.0004), support (p<0.0001), and resources (p<0.0001) were found to explain 51% of the variance in total satisfaction (p<0.0001). Comparisons of predicted and actual outcomes for the second data set will also be shared. Information subscale did not show a fit as predicted by the framework. SIGNIFICANCE. Considering the influence of nurses' work satisfaction on patient satisfaction, makes examining the validity of the framework very important. Knowing the influences on work satisfaction is key to nurse administrators. In this time of nurse shortage, retention (an outcome of organizational commitment) is an important consideration. The ability of nurse administrators to purposively influence access (to opportunities, support, and resources as precedents to work satisfaction) makes the model very practical.