Exploring the Concept of Empowerment in a Clinical Setting According to Chinn (2013), empowerment is the growth of personal strength, power, and ability to enact one’s will and love for self in the context of love and respect for others (p.11). On the contrary, disempowerment is the forcible denial by one or more persons in a position of power over the rights and choices of another person (Farlex, 2012). Both examples of empowerment and disempowerment are seen in today’s clinical practice among nurses and other health care professionals. In this essay, a narrative piece discussing an empowering incident that I experienced within a clinical placement will be of main focus. An analytical summary will also be discussed regarding the factors …show more content…
According to Chinn (2012), this action means supporting others who are new, or learning something new, in their work of taking on something that has already been mastered by the other health team member (p.25). So in my experience, the nurse who I was assigned was quite skilled, however she put aside her own interests in order to strengthen mine. Even though she was at the top, she worked at the bottom with me so that I had the best learning experience possible. The nurse also demonstrated the power of nurturing, which is also described by Chinn (2013) as treating others in ways that convey love and respect, and acknowledging that each individual’s experience identifies where she is at the present (p.26). This again relates back to the constant encouragement, patience, and confidence that the nurse had in me, which was the foundation that led to personal empowerment within the clinical setting. If anything this experience has made me more confident in my abilities as a student nurse and in myself as a person. I feel like I have been in more disempowering situations than I have empowering, so it’s hard connecting this experience to previous times. If anything, this has taught me how a clinical setting should be in terms of nurse to nurse relationships. Others shouldn’t be made to feel isolated, inferior, or incompetent, especially because they are a student nurse. …show more content…
In order to improve this, or heighten awareness of how significant this issue is, both internal and external chances need to occur. According to Rocker (2008), education is the first step in teaching nurses how to decrease the amount of bullying that takes place. Along with this, mandatory programs at the workplace should be implemented for health professionals to attend. These programs should outline the different forms of bullying, how it should be handled, and what should be done when someone is faced with a bully. Legal obligations, prevention policies, bullying assessments, preventative measures, and reporting/investigation, should also be discussed during these programs. Along with this, employee hospital policies should also strive to respect and value differences among nurses and to prevent acts of discrimination, unfair treatment, and other demeaning behaviours (Rocker, 2008). Employees who are guilty of workplace bullying should be suspended, but then again, this would maybe cause a heightened shortage of nurses, or perhaps, it would improve nurse- nurse bullying all
They care and nurture patients back to health so they can develop and perform as highly as possible. Nurses must be willing to take the time to listen carefully to other staff members and patients for mutual respect and trust to evolve. Nursing leaders influence and motivate subordinates by building relationships and further developing the practice skills of individual team members. A Servant Leader makes sure the needs of the individual team members are addressed and any conflicts are dealt in way that enhances professional competency among nurses. Recognition that servant leadership advocates a more group-oriented approach to analysis and decision making helps to strengthen the organization and improve the healthcare community (Murphy,
Now a days, in the healthcare field the nurses are known to prevent, promote and improve the health and abilities of patients, families and communities. It is very heartbreaking to hear that in this honorable profession exists violence, bullying which is among not only nurses but also other healthcare professionals. According to the article, Reducing Violence Against Nurses: The Violence Prevention Community Meeting, violence is defined as any verbal or physical behavior resulting in, or intended to result in, physical or physiological injury, pain, or harm. In the healthcare field the term that is used when there is violence between coworkers is called horizontal violence. This is a term that is continued to be used but some hospitals have replaced it with the terms bullying or lateral violence. Horizontal violence is violence between nurses and it explains the behavior nurses have toward their coworkers and other healthcare professionals. This type of violence interferes with working together as a team and communicating between coworkers, which are things that are needed to promote and care for others.
Nurse horizontal violence towards new nurses and nursing students includes methodical, unwelcome or unprovoked behaviors with the intent to upset, control, humiliate, harm, or segregate (Hutchinson, Vickers, Jackson, & Wilkes, 2006). Horizontal violence can be furtive and shrewd (such as withholding information or spreading gossip) as well as obvious and direct, such as reproaching in front of other staff, false complaints, or threatening body language (Hutchinson et al., 2006). Other forms of the experience, described both in nursing and non-nursing literature, include bullying, mobbing, intimidation, and aggression (Farrell, 2001). Bullies form cliques and engage in repetit...
Berry, P. A., Gillespie, G. L., Gates, D., & Schafer, J. (2012). Novice Nurse Productivity Following Workplace Bullying. Journal Of Nursing Scholarship, 44(1), 80-87. doi:10.1111/j.1547-5069.2011.01436.x
It has various negative effects which are persistent in nature, and the individual victim realizes the behaviour as bullying (Wilson, 2016). Bullying is associated with physical and psychological problems among nurses leading to absenteeism, poor performance, low job satisfaction, and increased turnover (Ganz, et al., 2015). The issue of bullying among nurses further affects the entire health care team including patient outcomes and health care costs due to the declining level of nurses’ performance (Becher & Visovsky, 2012). Although bullying exists in the nursing work place, they are silent in nature, and goes undetected (Becher & Visovsky,2012). Hence, identifying and managing workplace bullying needs efforts of individual facing bullying and support of the
The author of this paper has a pretty good understanding of her strengths and weaknesses, and genuinely believes in people. She believes that positivity and encouragement work far better than incivility and punishment. With her career goal of returning to trauma services and becoming a trauma coordinator, the author hopes she can include healthy workplace education in her future trauma prevention program. She would like to use her position as a Trauma Coordinator to reach out to employees and the community to encourage a healthy workplace. With disease processes such as hypertension, autoimmune disorders, depression, anxiety, and PTSD associated with workplace bullying (Healthy Workplace Bill [HWB], 2016), the author feels this education is beneficial, and compliments trauma prevention. Furthermore, she would like to bring some of the tools from the Healthy Workplace Bill (Healthy Workplace Bill [HWB], 2016) to the nurse practice counsel, shared governance committees, and organizational leaders. She would like bullying to be considered a never-event, much like hospital-acquired infections. By employing some of the tactics proposed in the healthy workplace bill, the author of this paper believes she can make a
The trauma related to negative behavior can afflict the healthcare environment on many levels, from creating a hostile work environment in which job performance is affected, by increasing job turnover and causing nurses to leave the profession altogether. The Joint Commission states that in the United States 65.6 million workers have experienced or witnessed bullying, psychological harassment affects 38 percent of healthcare workers, and 44 percent of nurses are impacted by this behavior (The Joint Commission, 2016). Inclusively, this behavior can influence the way nurses care for their patients, staffing levels, and the healthcare organization’s
Autonomy is identified as another professional value and one that the nurse must possess. Autonomy is the right to self-determination. Nurse’s respect the patient’s right to make a decision regarding their healthcare. Practical application includes, educating patients and their families on their choices, honoring their right to make their own decision and stay in control of their health, developing care plans in collaboration with the patient (Taylor, C. Lillis, C. LeMone, P. Lynn, P,
Nurses continually strive to bring holistic, efficient, and safe care to their patients. However, if the safety and well-being of the nurses are threatened or compromised, it is difficult for nurses to work effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the position of the American Nurses Association (ANA) advocate that every nursing professional have the right to work in a healthy work environment free of abusive behavior such as bullying, hostility, lateral abuse and violence, sexual harassment, intimidation, abuse of authority and position and reprisal for speaking out against abuses (American Nurses Association, 2012).
Since the role of nurses is to enhance and provide safe and high quality care, the concept of empowerment used specifically with nursing in relation to quality of care to achieve maximum patients' level of wellness (Bolton & Goodcnough, 2003). Nurses mangers' role includes empowering their staff nurses in order to enhance the quality of care for patients, which eventually improves patient outcomes by providing conditions and environment supporting professional practice and effective relationship within working context (Laschinger, Gilbert, Smith, & Leslie, 2010). In 1999, Laschinger and colleagues showed in their study that employees' perception of access to empowerment structures significantly influenced by leaders empowering behaviours (Laschinger, Wong, McMahon, & Kaufmann, 1999).
Empowerment is about decision-making and autonomy, personal and professionally. Nancy should have empowered her staff’s nurses with the opportunity to be involved in the organization decision-making process. When nurses can influence and control their nursing practice, their autonomy, confidence, and commitment to the organization increase (Manojlovich, 2007). Organizations that empowered nurses to act and guide their everyday challenges using their professional skills, knowledge, and own judgment, shows positives patient outcomes, and less nurse turnover, burnout, dissatisfaction, stress, and powerlessness among their staff (Rao,
This article Workplace bullying: Costly and preventable by Wiedmer presents information about workplace bullying including its prevalence, profiles targeted individuals, bullying behaviors, employer practices, and steps to prevent bullying. By describing and discussing workplace bullying power and control can impact the victims and organization to be stress and anxiety problems. A respectful workplace is the responsibilities of everyone’s to stopped, step up, addressing and identifying workplace bullying through the policies and procedures.
I believe placing student nurses in the clinical setting is vital in becoming competent nurses. Every experience the student experiences during their placement has an educative nature therefore, it is important for the students to take some time to reflect on these experiences. A specific situation that stood out to me from my clinical experience was that; I didn’t realize I had ignored the patient’s pain until I was later asked by the nurse if the patient was in any pain.
My Socialization into nursing after coming out of school was not a pleasant one. I can remember on my second night out of orientation, I was given 2 blood transfusions and a new admit coming. I was so upset I didn’t know what to do. That is the first time I heard the phase “nurses eat their young.” I went to the charge nurse to see if she was available to help. Of course she said that she had a lot of paper work and was not able to help me at that time. The other nurses on the floor had their patient load that they needed to get situated. I just broke down and cried like a baby. Some of the older nurses did come to help me as the night went on. I was very grateful and I learned what team work was that night. This certain charge nurse would always ignore me when I asked her a question. She always made me feel like I was stupid and didn’t belong in nursing. I started to question is nursing for me. I had to evaluate the whole situation I was in. I didn’t want to let my family down or feel like a failure so, I decided to stay with nursing and do the best I could. As time went on this nurse finally started to treat me like I belonged there and I stayed on that same unit for six years. My experience with this socialization have thought me to help every new nurse out to the best of my ability. It also thought me the value of teamwork. Most importantly, it thought me how to not give a nurse without much experience a heavy patient load starting out.
Rodwell, J., et al., “The Impact of Bullying on Health Care Administration Staff: Reduced Commitment Beyond the Influence of Negative Affectivity” (2012) Health Care Management Review 37(4), 329-338,