The concept of empowerment has not been empirically studied within a nursing context Because it refiects a proanacess,
it IS difficult to operationalize and no single measure can capture it adequately (Rappaport 1984) Using the hybrid model of concept development (Schwartz-Barcott& Kim 1986, 1993), a fieldwork study was conducted to further refine the concept of empowerment m relation to mothers of chronically ill children (Gibson 1993) The hybrid model interfaces theoretical analysis with empirical
observation and is composed of three phases