Empowerment in healthcare: A thematic synthesis and critical discussion of concept analyses of empowerment.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study is to shed light on common characteristics revealed in concept analyses of empowerment to contribute to further understanding. A further objective is to discuss how the perspective of healthcare service users appeared in the concept analyses.

METHODS

The review was performed by systematically searching Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO and ERIC. The search yielded 255 abstracts, which were reduced by relevance and critical appraisal to the 12 concept analyses included. The analysis process involved thematic synthesis as described by Thomas and Harden.

RESULTS

The synthesis led to 13 descriptive themes structured according to antecedents, attributes and consequences of empowerment. The synthesis revealed how sparsely the question of equality and power in the relation between health professionals and healthcare service users is addressed.

DISCUSSION

To a great extent empowerment is viewed as a helping process of making patients act differently, rather than redistribution of power. For groups that are particularly vulnerable to oppression, questions of power are of severe importance.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

As user participation is a growing discourse in health policy, health professionals need education to develop and address dimensions of power and reciprocity in empowering relations between users and themselves.