Annotated Bibliography: Empowerment, Creativity, and Transformational Leadership

Najah Musa

Department of Graduate Nursing, Methodist College

N6313: Leading Change in Healthcare and Nursing Education

Dr. Martin

Annotated Bibliography
 1

Schub, T. B., & Heering, H. R. C. (2018). Leadership and Empowerment. CINAHL Nursing

Guide.

Schub’s article offers an outlook on individuals when they have leaders who empower

them to work independently. He provides four elements that contribute to empowerment.

When nurses access information, they use this information to build on prior knowledge to

be able to perform the job needed, then opportunities arise for them. Most nurses do

this, according to Schub's, by giving “meaningfulness” to the work they put in. In the

article, this was tested on 273 nurses, having empowered individuals in the workplace,

builds trust in the workplace, which then reduces burnout rate drastically. This helps

individuals use emotional intelligence to become better leaders. Schub’s continues to

use authentic leadership to describe a pattern of behavior in a leader that is centered on

helping teammates find meaning in their work, which results in commitment to the

workplace in a positive way.

Smith, N. R. M. C., & Karakashian, A. R. B. (2018). Empowerment and Job Satisfaction in

Nurses. CINAHL Nursing Guide.

The article is aimed to explain why there is so much nurse burnout in healthcare. To

improve working conditions, the article suggests empowering nurses more and helping

nurses on reducing factors that contribute to stress like a limited number of patients. The

author defines empowers as decentralizing power to give more power to nurses. It is

done, according to the article, but placing more emphasis on helping nurses succeed

without feeling the stress of the workplace. Researchers for an analytic study comprised

of 602 nurses found that job stressors, especially management and interpersonal

relationship issues, were significant predictors of nursing burnout, and not empowering

nurses enough to know the power of their job and how to deal with those stressors.
 2

Nattaphat Janchai, Wannee Deoisres, & Nujjaree Chaimongkol. (2021). Improving Health

Literacy using the Health Education and Health Empowerment Program in Thai Adults with

Uncontrolled Hypertension: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Pacific Rim International Journal of

Nursing Research, 25(4), 600–613.

The article examines an empowerment program aimed in reducing hypertension in

problems that suffer from severe hypertension in two hospitals in Thailand. The program

consists of reinforcing health literacy to help patients to acquire and access and

understand information to stay healthy through cognitive and social skills. As a result of

this, the patients will feel empowered to make major lifestyle changes to become

healthier and ultimately reduce hypertension. Participants in the experimental group

received a 4-week Program and the others did. The findings were that people who

received training benefited from the program and will likely make better choices.

Azumi Hara. (2021). Empowerment of Nursing Students in Clinical Practice: Study of Construct

Aimed at Development of Measuring Scales. Journal of Japan Academy of Nursing Science, 41,

220–229. https://doi.org/10.5630/jans.41.220

The article emphasizes the importance of using empowerment in a clinical setting with

reference to CLEQ. CLEQ confirmed that using support, opportunity, resources and

information tends to give people a peace of mind and have a better relationship for

nurses to have to work with their patients. According to the article, this results in

empowerment for nurses which helps in making a better impact on the people around

them and on overall quality care for patients. It was suggested by the author that using

those elements( resources, opportunity, and information) tends to empower nurses more
 3

when dealing with their patients. Given that nurses are empowered, they will be most

efficient in the workplace.

Liu, H., Wang, I., Huang, D., Hsu, D., & Han, H. (2020). Nurturing and Enhancing Creativity of

Nursing Students in Taiwan: A Quasi‐Experimental Study. Journal of Creative Behavior, 54(4),

799–814.

The article emphasizes the importance of instilling creativity for nursing students for

better learning outcomes. Integrating creativity with teaching modifies helps increase

learning for nursing students. Both groups participated in the 18‐week course; however,

one group received creativity training with interdisciplinary teaching during the course,

which was taught by nursing faculty who completed a TCM workshop. According to the

article, findings determined that brainstorming, attribute listing, assessment matrix, and

paired comparison, can stimulate divergent thinking abilities of nursing students because

of creativity.

Del Mar Molero-Jurado, M., del Carmen Pérez-Fuentes, M., Gabriel Soriano, J., María Tortosa,

B., Fátima Oropesa, N., del Mar Simón-Márquez, M., & Jesús Gázquez-Linares, J. (2020).

Personality and job creativity in relation to engagement in nursing. Anales de Psicología, 36(3),

533–542. https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.405391

The article reiterates on the importance of having creativity for the job in nursing for

better patient outcome. According to the article, the study was aimed to show the

importance for professional practice, emphasizing the strong relationship between

engagement and perception of creativity, a relationship which points toward improved

engagement of nurses with their work, improving emotional stability and reinforcing the
 4

enthusiasm and inspiration for being more creative and competent with the institutional

organization they are part of. This will help nurses engage more in positive relationships

developing creativity for the people they will take care of.

Drafahl, B. (2020). The Influences Burnout and Lack of Empowerment Have on Creativity in

Nursing Faculty. Nursing Education Perspectives, 41(1), 33–36.

https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000545

The article describes the power of creativity and how lack of it leads to burnout and lack

empowerment. According to the article, nursing faculty who perceived feelings of

burnout were less motivated or engaged in their workplace, including interactions with

students, which was directly correlated to a decrease in perceived feelings of creativity.

A study was done to fully examine the importance of creativity in the workplace and its

impact on nurses. The findings were that there was correlation between burnout and

creativity. Creativity, according to the article, is highly impacted by how nurses feel in

the workplace and if they are burnt out from the amount of work that they have to do.

Walton, B. G. (2017). Developing a Nursing IQ - Part IV: Creativity and Critical Thinking. Ohio

Nurses Review, 92(2), 19–27.

The article examines the critical role of creativity and critical thinking on nursing

students. The article examines how creativity creates better decision making for the

patients. It emphasizes the power of creativity in the way nurses can use their creativity

to create better patient-centered care for both the patients and their families. Through

the use of critical thinking nurses often can perform better and can do better for their

patients. They can also use critical thinking to be able to move faster in the job when
 5

problems arise. This happens because nurses are not stressed and have time to react

when problems occur. The author further explains how individuals who use critical

thinking are willing to grow and are willing to further reflect on their practices for better

patient outcome.

Hutchinson, M., & Jackson, D. (2013). Transformational leadership in nursing: towards a more

critical interpretation. Nursing Inquiry, 20(1), 11–22.

The article examines how the transformation theory is an optimal theory to apply to

nurses. According to the article, effective nurse leadership is positioned as an essential

factor in achieving optimal patient outcomes and workplace enhancement. It provides

effective insight on nursing practice because of its impact on nurse leaders. According to

the article, transformational leadership empowers young nurses to take on the job

without losing themselves and without burning out.

McDaniel C, & Wolf GA. (1992). Transformational leadership in nursing service: a test of theory.

JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, 22(2), 60–65.

The article suggests that intellectual stimulation, charisma, and individual consideration

constitute aspects of transformational leadership that enhance retention and staff

satisfaction. In this study, the authors tested transformational leadership theory in one

nursing department with an executive, 11 mid level administrators, and 77 staff

registered nurses. It concluded that people with transformational leaders proved that

they were highly satisfied with their job because they felt they were in a positive

atmosphere. They also were productive because they had leaders who cared for them
 6

and influenced them to be a better version of themselves in the workplace. The article

also emphasized the importance of having transformational leaders for a better work

environment during critical care.

Connection between empower, creativity and transformational leadership

Empowerment, Creativity, and Transformational leadership are all interconnected in the way

they bring positive change to the workplace. When you empower the members of your

community, they tend to have more time to be more creative and more present in all aspects of

their job. Also, if you have leaders who give attentively to their members, you tend to see a

positive change in the workplace. Transformational leader is one that transforms/converts a

person into positive but praise and motivation. As noted in the book, transformational leadership

is a process in which “leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and

morality” (Burns, 1978, p. 20). We do this by making people proud of the work they put in, like

creating circles of encouragement to restore mental health , create positivity through being

positive individuals, personal encouragement, and constant compliments and praise on

performances. I believe that all three empowerment, creativity and transformation should be

implemented in the workplaces to create a safe environment and to empower members of a

group to work by bringing change and not losing themselves in the process. Those also promote

positive impact and are often ways nurse leaders can use constructive criticism to promote

healthier relationships between the members of the group without jeopardizing the quality care

of the patients and members of the group.

References

Burns, J. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.