Nursing Personnel' Perception Toward Shared Governance and Its Relation to their Job Empowerment

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 B.Sc. Nursing Science

2 Professor of Nursing Administration, Faculty of Nursing, Menoufia University

3 Lecturer of Nursing Administration, Faculty of Nursing, Benha University

Abstract

Shared  governance  has  been  proposed  as  essential  to  improve quality  patient care, contain  costs, retain and empower  nursing  staff.  The purpose of the study is to assess the perception of nursing personnel toward shared governance and its relation to their job empowerment. A descriptive correlational design was utilized to   meet the aim of this study. The subjects: convenience sample included 220 staff nurses and 60 head nurses at Benha University Hospital.  The instruments of data collection were professional nursing shared governance questionnaire and the conditions for   work   effectiveness   questionnaire. Results showed that   head  nurses perception  level  were  higher  versus  staff   nurses in relation  to  total  shared  governance  perception . Head nurses perception were higher (33.3% versus 16.4%) than staff nurses in the study   setting   related to total job empowerment. Statistically, staff nurses had a low level of perception (20.0%versus none) regarding shared governance and job empowerment in the study setting. There was a highly statistical correlation between shared governance and job empowerment among nursing personnel in the study setting. Conclusions: It was concluded that  head  nurses perception toward  both  shared governance and  job empowerment  was  higher  than  staff  nurses  in the  study setting. Recommendation: updated universal protocols and   guidelines about shared governance model must be used in the study   setting.   In- service training and educational programs must be a continuous process for increasing cognitive abilities of nursing personnel underlying decision making.

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