I S S U E S A N D IN N O V A T I O N S IN N U R S I N G E D U C A T I O N

Nurse educators’ workplace empowerment, burnout, and job satisfaction: testing Kanter’s theory
Teresa P. Sarmiento
MScN RN

College Nurse Educator, George Brown College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Heather K. Spence Laschinger
Canada

PhD RN

Professor and Associate Director Nursing Research, School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario,

Carroll Iwasiw

EdD RN

Professor and Director School of Nursing, School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Submitted for publication 22 May 2003 Accepted for publication 21 October 2003

Correspondence: Heather Spence Laschinger, School of Nursing, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario N6A 5C1, Canada. E-mail: hkl@uwo.ca

SARMIENTO T.P., LASCHINGER H.K.S. & IWASIW C. (2004)

Journal of

Advanced Nursing 46(2), 134–143 Nurse educators’ workplace empowerment, burnout, and job satisfaction: testing Kanter’s theory Background. Empowerment has become an increasingly important factor in determining college nurse educator burnout, work satisfaction and performance in current restructured college nursing programmes in Canada. Aim. This paper reports a study to test a theoretical model specifying relationships among structural empowerment, burnout and work satisfaction. Method. A descriptive correlational survey design was used to test the model in a sample of 89 Canadian full-time college nurse educators employed in Canadian community colleges. The instruments used were the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire, Job Activities Scale, Organizational Relationship Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory Educator Survey and Global Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. Results. College nurse educators reported moderate levels of empowerment in their workplaces as well as