Investigation of nurses' individual and professional autonomy

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: In nursing, autonomy refers to the followings, ability to make desicions on nursing, being in dependent whitin his/her own practices, freedom of acting in line with binding desicions. The study was carried out to determine how nurses perceived individual and professional autonomy levels and to examine the factors affecting autonomy in nurses. METHODS: The descriptive study was carried out with 214 nurses who volunteered to participate in a research and training hospital. Data were collected with the Individual Questionnaire, Sociotropy- Autonomy Scale and Nursing Activity Scale. In the analysis of data, number and percentage distributions, mean score, Spearman's, Kruskal-Wallis, and Mann-Whitney U Test were used. RESULTS: The mean score for 'Sociotropy' subscale of Sociotropy Autonomy Scale was 64.43 +- 15.72; for the 'Autonomy' subscale was 81.31 +- 14.41 and the mean score for the Nursing Activity Scale was 176,15. The correlation between marital status, age and sociotropy is statictically significant (p<0.05). A significant relationship was found between the mean score of 'Freedom' and 'Preference for Solitude' subscale and the working years (p<0.05). The correlation between educational status and Nursing Activity Scale is statictically significant (p<0.05). There was a positive correlation between Sociotropy Autonomy Scale and Nursing Activity Scale. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: The sociotropic and autonomic personality traits of the nurses who participated in the study were mid-level. According to the Nursing Activity Scale, nurses' professional autonomy was found to be moderate. Also; it is concluded that there is a positive relationship between Individual Autonomy and Professioanal Autonomy.

Keywords

• autonomy
• autonomy in nursing
• professionalism
• decision making