Effect of empowerment on professional practice environments, work satisfaction, and patient care quality - Further testing the Nursing Worklife Model

The purpose of this study was to test Leiter and Laschinger's Nursing Worklife Model linking structural empowerment to Lake's 5-factor professional practice work environment model and work quality outcomes. A predictive, nonexperimental design was used to test the model in a random simple of 234 staff nurses. The analysis revealed that professional practice environment characteristics mediated the relationship between structurally empowering work conditions and both job satisfaction and nurse-assessed patient care quality.