Nurse educators’ perceived organizational factors affecting their psychological empowerment: An exploratory qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Organizational culture affects nurse educators' psychological empowerment. Limited research exists on the organizational culture and psychological empowerment in nursing educational environments and about the type of organizational factors affecting nurse educators' psychological empowerment. AIM: To explore nurse educators' perceived organizational factors that affect their psychological empowerment. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive exploratory study was drawn from a larger sequential exploratory-mixed-methods study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 educators with both clinical and educational experience. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: We generated three themes: poor organizational structure, dynamics of educators-academic administrators' relations, and educational tools and physical environment. The educators perceived factors were poor organizational structure, lack of collaboration across institutions and regulatory bodies, condescending attitudes of administrators and educators toward novice educators, limited teaching aids and scholarly resources, poorly defined roles, and underdeveloped and inconsistent curricula. CONCLUSIONS: The identified organizational factors should be addressed to enhance educators' psychological empowerment so that they can effectively teach students. Emphasis should be placed on developing collaboration among educators, academic administrators, and regulatory bodies to address these factors. Further quantitative research is warranted to assess the degree and strength of association of these factors with psychological empowerment.