Abstract

One of the missions of nursing education is to prepare professionally qualified nurses. However, nursing students have inadequate knowledge when starting as a career after graduation. This research aimed at exploring the effect of in-service empowerment training on the professional knowledge of newly employed nurses. This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 60 nurses with 1-6 month experience working at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Khash, Iran. The subjects were divided into the intervention (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. Data collection tool included a researcher-made questionnaire designed in six domains including patient safety, basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation, infection control, communication skills, reporting, and firefighting. Data were analyzed in SPSS 22 using independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test. Independent t-test revealed no significant difference between the mean scores of knowledge in the control (41.22 +/- 6.52) and intervention (40.88 +/- 6.66) groups (P = 0.845). However, after the empowerment program, the knowledge score increased significantly in the intervention group (89.88 +/- 7.08) compared with the control group (46.55 +/- 8.34) (P <0.001). Empowerment program enhanced nurses' professional knowledge. Therefore, empowerment programs should be a vital part of professional development at hospitals.