The Effects of Practice Environment and Job Characteristics on Nurses and Nurse Aides' Feelings of Powerlessness in Residential Long-Term Care Institutions

This study aims to compare the differences in professional environment, job characteristics, and feelings of powerlessness between nurses and nurse aides (NAs) in residential long-term care institutions, and to analyze the predictors of powerlessness. This study employed a comparative and correlational design, utilizing convenience sampling. Participants were recruited from 24 residential long-term care institutions in central Taiwan between April 2023 and March 2024. The research tools included a Practice Environment Survey Scale, a Work Design Questionnaire, and a Powerlessness Scale. A total of 338 participants (156 nurses and 182 NAs) took part in this study. Both nurses and NAs reported moderate to low levels of powerlessness, with average scores of 42.18 and 37.07, respectively. However, nurses experienced more powerlessness than NAs (t = 3.046, p = 0.003). Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that professional environment (β = −0.381, p < 0.01) and job characteristics (β = −0.285, p = 0.005) were significant predictors of powerlessness among nurses, explaining 41.7% of the variance. In contrast, the only predictor of powerlessness for NAs was the professional environment (β = −0.695, p < 0.001), which explained 42.4% of the variance.