impact of simultaneous nursing staff training and unit reorganization on nursing empowerment

ABSTRACT

This study intended to empower the nursing staff through training and reorganization of neurosurgical unit. The subjects were all the unit staff [20 physicians, 18 nurses, 4 auxiliary personnel and 34 patients]. The study was done in 3 phases An assessment phase, to inspect the physical set up, equipment used, facilities, unit's staff opinions, suggestions, patient's condition, nurses knowledge, performance and level of anxiety using Taylor anxiety scale and Phaneuf scale to measure the quality of care that patient receives; the experimental phase, that was based on the input from the assessment phase, a program for reconstruction of the unit and upgrading knowledge and performance of the staff was developed and implemented for 10-month period; the evaluation phase in which correlation was done between results of the assessment phase and post program implementation. There was improvement regarding staff knowledge and performance as well as patients condition with an interesting finding which showed marked increase of the nurses' anxiety level post the implementation of the program which can be attributed to increase level of responsibility. This paper showed that through empowerment of the nurses productivity increased, functions improved and the patients received higher quality care