Investigation of the Empowering Factors in the Nursing Profession: A Combined Study

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified nurses as the key to health success and has thus called for improving the nursing workforce to promote overall health around the world.

This study was conducted to investigate the empowering factors in the nursing profession.

The present study was based on a qualitative-quantitative mixed-methods approach that started in 2019 and ended in 2022. The statistical sample included the Nursing faculty professors of Aja University of Medical Sciences (Tehran, Iran, n=12 experts) and Khanevadeh hospital (Tehran, Iran) nurses (n=143). Data collected from experts were studied through purposeful sampling and in-depth interviews. They were collected, recorded, and coded according to the systematic analysis of qualitative data proposed by Corbin and Strauss using the MAXQDA 2018 software, and categorized in the form of central codes. Additionally, the quality of the text of the interviews, as well as the codes, was reviewed and approved by a team of nursing experts who were well-known researchers in the field of qualitative research. The hypotheses in the quantitative phase reflected the model obtained from the results of the qualitative part. After confirming the validity and reliability of the internal and external model in the community, they were quantitatively tested, and path analysis was performed in the Smart pls software.

The findings of open, axial, and survey coding showed that the axial code had underlying factors of 7 categories, structural factors of 5 categories, and behavioral factors of 7 categories. The findings of path analysis revealed that the underlying factors with a path coefficient of 0.743 and the structural factor with a path coefficient of 0.850 affected the individual factor.

The findings of the present study are in line with previous research findings considering the nursing profession empowerment and were confirmed as empowering factors in the nursing profession. In this regard, suggestions were proposed to policymakers, as well as the managers of the health system, and nurses.