How empowerment and social support affect Australian nurses' work stressors

Abstract

We surveyed 157 nurses at a private hospital in Melbourne to examine the role of social support and empowerment in reducing work stress among Australian nurses. Our findings reveal that social support, derived from either the supervisor or work colleagues, is negatively associated with the main work stressors, such as role conflict, role ambiguity, work overload and resource inadequacy. Empowerment, too, is negatively associated with the main work stressors, apart from work overload. We discuss contributions of this study and implications for research and practice in health sector management.