Effect of Empowerment Structures and Career Design on Psychological Empowerment of Mid-Career Nurses

Abstract

We aimed to study how differences in the career design affect psychological empowerment in mid-career nurses with empowerment structure access. The study participants included 216 nurses who were working for the past 5–15 years at 7 hospitals in the capital area of Japan. The data were collected via anonymous self-administered questionnaire, including questions on basic attributes, Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-Ⅱ, Psychological Empowerment Scale , and Career Design Scale for nurses. A two-way ANOVA using dependent variable psychological empowerment and independent variables empowerment structure access and career design and its components was performed. Consequently, the main effects observed were related to empowerment structure access (F(1, 212)=7.51, p<.01) and career design (F(1, 212)=29.00, p<.001); psychological empowerment of the high group of each independent was greater than that of the low group. Furthermore, interaction was observed between empowerment structure access and crossroad awareness of nurse life in the carrier design components (F(1, 212)=7.85, p<.001). These show that empowerment structure access and the difference in the degree of career design affect psychological empowerment for mid-career nurses. In addition, it was confirmed that nurses who accessed empowerment structures affects psychological empowerment via "crossroad awareness of nurse life", but issues remain in factor reliability. Therefore, further study is necessary in the future.