Medical Science
Volume 24, Issue 102, March - April, 2020
Impact of empowerment program on the professional knowledge of newly employed nurses at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Khash, South East Iran
Abdolbaset Rigimotlagh1, Abdolghani Abdollahimohammad2♦, Mohammadreza Firouzkouhi2, Ali Mansouri3
1Student Research Committee, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
2Medical-Surgical Department, Faculty of nursing and midwifery, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
3Community Health Department, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran
♦Corresponding author
Medical-Surgical Department, Faculty of nursing and midwifery, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol,
Iran
Email: abdalqani@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
One of the missions of nursing education is to prepare professionally qualified nurses. However, nursing students have inadequate
knowledge when starting as a career after graduation. This research aimed at exploring the effect of in-service empowerment
training on the professional knowledge of newly employed nurses. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 60 nurses with
1-6 month experience working at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Khash, Iran. The subjects were divided into the intervention (n=30) and
control (n=30) groups. Data collection tool included a researcher-made questionnaire designed in six domains including patient
safety, basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation, infection control, communication skills, reporting, and firefighting. Data were analyzed
in SPSS 22 using independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. Independent t-test revealed no significant difference between the
mean scores of knowledge in the control (41.22± 6.52) and intervention (40.88±6.66) groups (P = 0.845). However, after the
empowerment program, the knowledge score increased significantly in the intervention group (89.88±7.08) compared with the
control group (46.55±8.34) (P <0.001). Empowerment program enhanced nurses’ professional knowledge. Therefore, empowerment
programs should be a vital part of professional development at hospitals.
Keywords: Professional knowledge, empowerment, novice nurses
Medical Science, 2020, 24(102), 744-749
