Critical care nurses' perceptions of workplace empowerment, magnet hospital traits and mental health.

The purpose of this study was to test Kanter's Theory (1977, 1993) of Structural Power in Organizations in a sample of Canadian critical care nurses. A secondary analysis of data from a larger descriptive correlational survey design was used to examine the relationships between perceived empowerment, perceived magnet hospital traits and critical care nurses' mental health (n = 75). The instruments in this study included the Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire II, the Job Activities Scale II, the Organizational Relationship Scale II, the Nurses Work Index-Revised, the Emotional Exhaustion Subscale, and the State of Mind Subscale. Empowerment was significantly and positively related to perceptions of magnet hospital traits (r = .49, p = 0.001). The combination of empowerment and magnet hospital traits explained a significant amount of the variance in mental health indicators: burn-out (19%) and state of mind (12%).