The three perspectives of empowerment are useful for
synthesizing available literature in relation to nursing student
empowerment. Researchers in Canada and the United States
found that a feminist pedagogy is effective in empowering
nursing students (Falk-Rafael et al. 2004). From an organization
perspective, researchers have used Kanter’s (1993)
structural empowerment theory as the basis for research: Siu
et al. (2005) reported that nursing students on a problembased
learning programme experienced greater structural
empowerment than students on a conventional programme
and this increased student motivation, confidence and selfdirection
toward learning. Similarly, Sinclair (2000) used
Kanter’s work as the basis for a qualitative study and
reported that environmental structures have an impact on
students’ perceptions of empowerment. These studies
advance understanding of the significance of structural empowerment in relation to nurse education, but they only
considered the experiences of final year baccalaureate nursing
students rather than a broader spectrum of experience.