| Empowerment is the process by which an individual becomes aware of one's options to change oneself or the environment and acts deliberately and freely to create the change. The educational environment influences the baccalaureate nursing student's empowerment. Discovery of the hindering or helping manifestations can provide data by which the educational environment can be manipulated by nurse educators to facilitate the empowering of nursing students and, hence, nurses.;The purpose of this study was to identify manifestations of the educational environment which influence empowerment. An exploratory, descriptive design was used involving both quantitative and qualitative methodology. Barrett's (1983) Power as Knowing Participation in Change Tool (PKPCT) was utilized to quantitatively identify baccalaureate nursing students with the highest and lowest frequency scores for empowerment. Eighty-eight students completed the PKPCT and 18 were interviewed for qualitative data regarding manifestations of the educational environment. Interviews were organized according to the PKPCT power indicators of choices, awareness, freedom to act intentionally, and creating change.;The two groups were significantly different on the PKPCT scores (t = 8.89, p = 0.001). The low scoring group reported more hindering manifestations within the educational environment than the high scoring group. The most common hindering manifestations mentioned by students were having an attitude of not being ready to choose, having a structure of limited curricular options and overly structured policies, being limited in time, having faculty attitudes of not protecting the student, and the student role as clinician and evaluator of the program. The most common manifestations identified as helpers to empowerment in the educational environment were having an attitude of being ready to choose, having an educational environmental structure which fosters senior year independence, and having faculty attitudes which support assertive behavior.;It is recommended that students with low empowerment be identified early and appropriate interventions initiated to manipulate the educational environment. |
