PREDICTORS OF EMPOWERMENT AMONG UNDERGRADUATE NURSING STUDENTS: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

By

Tahany Fareed Al-niarat

Supervisor

Dr. Fathieh Abdullah Abu Moghli, Prof.

ABSTRACT 

Background: Nursing students' perception of empowerment has an important impact on their learning process and learning outcomes. Many factors may affect students' perception of empowerment . These factors are related to an individual's capabilities, environmental factors, and teaching-learning strategies.

Aim: This study aimed to predict the factors that influence undergraduate nursing students' perceived empowerment in Jordan.

Methodology: The exploratory, cross-sectional design was used in this study, 164 fourth-year nursing students were selected to participate by convenience sampling method from private and public universities. The universities with the largest number of students were selected from each region (north, middle, south), and from both sectors (private and public). The data collection methods included an Arabic version of self-reported questionnaires. The Learner Empowerment Scale (LES) to assess nursing students' perception of empowerment, Learning Orientation Grade Orientation-II (LOGO-II) to assess nursing students learning measurements, and The Undergraduate Nursing Students Academic Satisfaction Scale (UNSASS) to assess nursing students agreement with In-class teaching, clinical teaching, program design and delivery, and support and resources. 

Results: Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, 164 out of 184 students completed and returned the questionnaires with a response rate of 90%. Participants showed moderate perception of empowerment with a mean score is 79 out of (0-140) (SD=17.35). The results showed a positive correlation between nursing students' perception of empowerment and their attitudes toward learning. Also, results showed a strong correlation between students' perception of empowerment and their satisfaction with In-class teaching, clinical teaching, program design and delivery, and support and resources. In-class teaching was found to be the strongest predictor of students' perception of empowerment among the other six predictors. 

Conclusion: This is the first study conducted in Jordan that contributed to the body of literature on the factors that influencing nursing students' perception of empowerment. The results highlighted the essence of In-class teaching methods and classroom environment. Thus, more efforts should focus on clinical training and clinical placement to match the educational requirement to reduce the theory-practice gap.

​Keywords: Empowerment, nursing students, nursing educators, teaching style, learning outcomes, nursing learning, clinical learning, clinical placement, predictors, and factors.