Professional nurse autonomy: concept analysis and application to nursing education

Abstract

Professional nurse autonomy, an essential attribute of a discipline striving for full professional status, is often confused with personal autonomy, work autonomy or aggregate professional autonomy. Using Walker & Avant's (1995) model for concept analysis, this paper presents an analysis of professional nurse autonomy. Professional nurse autonomy is defined as belief in the centrality of the client when making responsible discretionary decisions, both independently and interdependently, that reflect advocacy for the client. Critical attributes include caring, affiliative relationships with clients, responsible discretionary decision making, collegial interdependence, and proactive advocacy for clients. Antecedents include educational and personal qualities that promote professional nurse autonomy. Accountability is the primary consequence of professional nurse autonomy. Associated feelings of empowerment link work autonomy and professional autonomy and lead to job satisfaction, commitment to the profession, and the professionalization of nursing. A student-centred, process-orientated curricular design provides an environment for learning professional nurse autonomy. To support the development of professional nurse autonomy, the curriculum must emphasize knowledge development, understanding, and clinical decision making.

Determining the Professional Behavior of Psychiatric Nurses

“…[30] Uzun yıl-lar boyunca hemşirelik mesleği profesyonellik için çaba gös-termektedir. [31] Temel eğitimde kazanılan bilgi, mesleki otonominin temelini oluşturur. Hemşire hasta bakımında klinik yargılama ve karar vermede mesleki bilgisini kullanır.…”

Midwives’ Professional Satisfaction and the Quality of Obstetric Care in Developing Country

“…This questionnaire included closed response questions and Likert-type five response level questions (5. very satisfied, 4. satisfied, 3. moderately satisfied, 2. dissatisfied, 1. very dissatisfied). This tool, created from theinstruments "Measure of Job Satisfaction" (MJS) [25] and "Job Descriptive Index" (JDI) [26] was validated on a sample of 937 care providers who worked in reproductive health facilities inMali and Senegal. It has been shown to have good validity and satisfactory reliability [22].…”

Interdependence: A Concept Analysis

“…Acceptance of one another and collaboration of ideas has been shown to better outcomes of patient care. Studies also showed that interdependence with members of the healthcare team help develop nurse autonomy [20].…”

“…"Interdependence stimulates and challenges individual opinion, guides and augments initiative, and demands individual responsibility and accountability, attributes strongly associated with professional nurse autonomy, " which pertained to character and belief in oneself (para. 13) [20]. Teamworkwas conveyed as being vitalfor systems to work interdependently based on faith and acceptance of the members' character and competence.…”