PROFESSIONAL NURSE AUTONOMY: INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT AND IDENTIFICATION OF RELATED VARIABLES (ADMINISTRATION, MANAGEMENT).
Contributors: University Of Illinois At Chicago, Health Sciences Center.
Published: 1992
Number of pages: 127
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: The three primary objectives of this study are: (a) to further develop an instrument that measures professional nurse autonomy, (b) to investigate whether specific personal and work-structure variables as well as types of autonomy (i.e., personal, work) predict professional nurse autonomy, and (c) to determine if there are differences in personal, work, and professional nurse autonomy between nurses employed in home health and hospital settings. A descriptive cross-sectional design was employed in which 239 hospital and 115 home health nurses completed a questionnaire that requested demographic information and measured personal autonomy, work autonomy, and professional nurse autonomy. The overall response rate was 44%.

A factor analysis demonstrated that the Nursing Activity Scale (Schutzenhofer, 1988) represents two subconcepts of professional nurse autonomy identified in the literature: simple-independent and global-interdependent autonomous decision making. Stepwise regression analysis demonstrated that personal autonomy, work autonomy, and type of employment setting were predictors of professional nurse autonomy. T-tests showed that home health nurses had statistically significant higher mean personal, work, and professional nurse autonomy scores than hospital nurses. However, ANOVA also demonstrated that there was a statistically significant difference in mean professional nurse autonomy scores among nurses employed in different agencies.

This study had two important findings. First, because the Nursing Activity Scale has demonstrated good content validity and reliability, and represents subconcepts of professional autonomy identified in the literature, it should continue to be used in further research on professional nurse autonomy. Second, beliefs in personal autonomy and an environment that supports work autonomy help predict beliefs in professional nurse autonomy. There are nurses today who believe in personal and work autonomy and seek environments that promote professional nurse autonomy. Nurse educators should continue to promote students' autonomous decision making; and nurse administrators should continue to provide a work environment that supports autonomy so that nurses may be empowered to act autonomously on behalf of their patients.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-01, Section: B, page: 0166.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER, 1992.

School code: 0806.