Theoretical basis
Empowerment is the wholeness of thinking and action with the help of which the individuals and communities control their operation to their life.
Empowered patient has the ability to recognise his/her existing knowledge, knowledge expectations, is able to understand knowledge, to make decisions and solve problems and to act for his/her own health and treatment. Even in very complicated clinical situations (like surgical treatment) patients themselves experience some power to act and improve their health and treatment.
Patients´experience can be supported by patient education. Nurses need to understand the knowledge expectations of patients, to be able to support patients´ understanding and decision making and to help patients to evaluate their level of empowerment. Empowerment cannot be given to anybody, but nurses can support patients in their own empowering process. Patient education is a nursing intervention.
In patient education, the origin of EPE is in the education of long-term patients, but it has used also in operational fields, like in orthopedics and health counseling.
The empowering knowledge is composed of patients´ previous knowledge, knowledge expectations and received knowledge (Leino-Kilpi & Vuorenheimo, 1994, Leino-Kilpi, Mäenpää & Katajisto, 1999, Heikkinen et al., 2007, Rankinen et al., 2007). The empowering knowledge is devided into six dimensions: bio-physiological (i.e. illness, symptoms, treatment and complications), functional (i.e. mobility, rest and nutrition), experimential (i.e. emotions and hospital experiences), ethical (i.e. rights, duties and participation in decision-making), social (i.e. families, other patients and patients unions), financial (i.e. costs and financial benefits) (Leino-Kilpi & Vuorenheimo, 1994, Leino-Kilpi et al., 1999, Rankinen et al., 2007).