The Impact of Work Environment on Structural Empowerment among Nurses in Governmental Hospitals

Background: The work environment is considered an important factor for the success of any healthcare organization that keeps upstanding and can compete with others to achieve the organization and employee's goals. This study aims to examine the effect of the workplace environment on the structural empowerment of registered nurses in governmental hospitals. Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive survey study. The sample consisted of 405 nurses from three Jordanian governmental hospitals. Data were collected using an online self-reported questionnaire that was distributed to the participants. The questionnaire included sections on demographic characteristics, the structural empowerment scale, and the work environment scale. Data collection took place between 1 January 2023 and 15 February 2023. Results: The participants demonstrated various levels in their perceptions of the working environment. They demonstrated a moderate perception level toward stress and work pressure, role clarity, peer cohesive subscale, and for working environment scale while they reported a low perception level on ethical, autonomy, work practices, managerial support, commitment, and social responsibility subscales. However, the nurses' work environment overall score was found to be at a moderate level (3.15 out of 5 +/- 0.61). Furthermore, their structural empowerment level was found to be at a moderate level (19.40 out of 30 +/- 3.68). Conclusions: Highly empowered nurses' work environments display higher structural empowerment. Applying structural empowerment in work environments is very important to improve nurses' performance, ensure the highest level of patient care quality, and achieve organizational goals.