The relationship between work empowerment and work stress perceived by nurses at long-term care facilities in Taipei city

Aim. To explore the relationships between work empowerment, including both structural and psychological empowerment and work stress among nurses at long-term care facilities in Taiwan. Design. Cross-sectional design with a descriptive correlation. Methods. Work empowerment includes both psychological and structural empowerment; 178 nurses participated in the study. Results. The results of this study showed that the average age of the subjects was 35.5 years and that 56.2% of subjects had less than two years work experience in the facility. The results indicated that there was a moderate level of psychological empowerment (mean 59.9, SD 8.1) and structural empowerment (mean 59.2, SD 11.1). A moderate level of work stress was also found with an average score of 72.3 (SD 14.4). Both psychological empowerment and structural empowerment were found to be significantly associated with total work stress (r = -0.4, r = -0.5, p < 0.001, respectively). The variables of age (standardised β = -0.1), resources (standardised β = -1.6), meaningful work (standardised β = -0.4) and impact (standardised β = -1.3) were significant predictors of work stress (R² = 0.32, F = 17.3, p<0.001). Conclusion. Both psychological empowerment and structural empowerment were found to be significantly associated with work stress among nurses in this study. The four significant predictors of job satisfaction were age, resources, meaningful work and impact. Relevance to clinical practice. The managers of the facilities should provide available resources for nurses to accomplish work and to involve nurses in the development goals of the facilities to enhance their influence in the making of important changes within the organisation to decrease their work stress.