Relationship between Jordanian Undergraduate Nursing Students' Perception of Empowerment and Academic Satisfaction: A Descriptive Study

The perception of nursing students regarding empowerment has an important impact on their learning process and learning outcomes.

This study aimed to assess the relationship between undergraduate nursing students' perception of empowerment and their academic satisfaction in Jordan.

A descriptive correlation design was used in this study. A total of 164 fourth-year nursing students were selected to participate by convenience sampling method. The universities with the largest number of students were selected according to regions (north, middle, and south) and sectors (3 private and 2 public). The data collection methods included an Arabic version of self-reported questionnaires, the Learner Empowerment Scale (LES) to assess nursing students' perception of empowerment, and the Undergraduate Nursing Students Academic Satisfaction Scale (UNSASS) to assess nursing student’s agreement with academic satisfaction.

Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A total of 164 out of 184 students completed and returned the questionnaires with a response rate of 90%. Participants showed a moderate perception of empowerment with a mean score of 79 (out of 0-140) (SD=17.35). Pearson analysis showed a strong correlation between students' perception of empowerment and their academic satisfaction at all subscales: in-class teaching, clinical teaching, program design and delivery, and support and resources, respectively, as follows: r (162) = +.37. P<0.01, r (162) = +.27, p<0.01, r (162) = .26, p<0.01, and r (162) = .30, p<0.01.

This is the first study conducted in Jordan that contributed to the body of literature on undergraduate nursing students' perception of empowerment and the relation to their satisfaction with the learning environment. The results highlighted the essence of teaching-learning context and methods to empower the students. Thus, more efforts should focus on clinical training, clinical placement, and diversity of teaching strategies to match the educational requirement to reduce the theory-practice gap.