Nursing Empowerment for Quality Improvement

Abstract

In the era of consumerism, quality of care is inevitable regardless of the health care setting. Nursing leaders, in employment settings or in professional organizations, exercise power in making professional judgements in their day to day activities. Power is authority over others. Empowerment, in contrast, it is authority purposefully shared with others. Nursing empowerment means the ability to effectively motivate and mobilize self and others to accomplish positive outcomes in nursing practice and work environment. Quality improvement is an organised process that assesses and evaluates health services to improve practice or quality of care. The nurse's empowerment and patient quality care are both the sides of same coin. The empowered team influences staff morale, productivity, staff retention and associated costs, patient care quality, and patient safety. Enhancing leadership skills, being a positive change agent, education upgradation and being an Evidence Based Practice (EBP) cheerleader abilities are required for nurses to become an empowered professional to render quality care. The factors contributing to nurse empowerment are: Decision-making, Autonomy, Manageable workload, Fairness, Reward and Recognition. Nursing empowerment becomes an inevitable component to achieve quality improvement in any health care setting.