LOCUS OF CONTROL AND AUTONOMY OF REGISTERED NURSES IN THE HOSPITAL SETTING.
Contributors: State University of New York at Buffalo.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 202
Subjects: Education, Curriculum and Instruction.; Health Sciences, Nursing.; Education, Health.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine the differences between locus of control and autonomy of nurses specifically, ideal autonomy and actual autonomy in the hospital setting.

Registered nurses who are female (n = 234), employed in five hospitals in Western New York, participated in this study. The instruments used to measure locus of control were Rotter's (1966) Internal-External Scale, as well as The Pankratz Nursing Autonomy Scale developed by Pankratz and Pankratz (1974) which was modified by this investigator to measure the ideal nursing autonomy and actual nursing autonomy of nurses. This study has further sought to determine the relationship between locus of control and autonomy to position of nurses in the hospital setting; religious preferences including Protestant or Other group subjects and Catholic group subjects; and first born or only child nurses and later born nurses. The t test for independent means at the.05 level of significance indicated that nurses classified as internal were more autonomous in ideal and actual autonomy than nurses who were classified as external. A prediction that external nurses would demonstrate a greater discrepancy or "D" score between ideal autonomy scores and actual autonomy scores than internal nurses was not significant. Locus of control and autonomy scores were applied to factors of nursing position, religious preference and birth order. There was a significant difference for nursing position. However, there was no significant difference for religious preference or birth order except for birth order and locus of control. These results and their implications in the nursing profession are discussed.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3600.

Thesis (PH.D.)--STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK AT BUFFALO, 1988.

School code: 0656.