Empowerment

Abstract

This interpretative phenomenological study was conducted to understand how a nursing college's organizational structure may affect a returning nursing student's sense of empowerment and motivation to succeed. A returning student is a student who previously failed in a nursing program and was reaccepted to the Maine College of Health Professions's (MCHP) nursing program. Inclusion criteria that needed to be met were the student's classification as returning nursing students who were currently enrolled or graduated from MCHP's nursing program within the past two academic years. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine returning students in an area of the participants choosing. The qualitative data was analyzed, framed, and guided by Kanter's theory of structural empowerment. Through the course of the qualitative analysis, key themes that emerged were related to how MCHP has the ability to affect student empowerment and motivation as an organization, with subthemes of empowerment, horizontal violence, positive and negative faculty interactions, pedagogy and teaching. There are many factors that affect student empowerment. A student's personal factors may affect their success. In this study, returning student narratives reinforce the idea that a college's organizational structure has a tremendous impact on student empowerment and their motivation to succeed. The lived experience of the sample helps current educators to understand there are organizational factors at the college level that may affect a student's sense of empowerment and motivation to complete their academic program.