Empowerment in Nursing Literature: An Update and Look to the Future

Abstract

This review was conducted to describe empowerment theories that have influenced nursing practice, education, and research. Multiple perspectives of empowerment including structural, psychological, and group have contributed to the failure to consistently describe and measure this complex concept. The majority of empowerment literature originates from nonnursing theoretical frameworks. This review suggests that the nursing theory of work team/group empowerment, a midlevel nursing theory based upon King’s conceptual framework of nursing, may be used to better understand and improve nurses’ work team’s/group’s empowerment within healthcare organizations.