Challenges of professional self-regulation in Iranian nursing

The essence of nursing is protecting the public and nursing profession believes that receiving high quality and safe services, is the community’s right. During the past decades nursing has been considered as a significant profession with characteristics such as autonomy, professional commitment, expertise and responsiveness (1). The body of contemporary nursing is consisted of knowledge and skills, value system, academic education and professional socialization. Autonomy has been defined as nurse’s capacity for determining their action through independent choosing in all the fields of nursing practice and self-regulatory in nursing practice is necessary for achieving professional freedom of action (2).
Professional self-regulatory is the decision-making power for determining the inclusion criteria for the members to enter the profession and start their activity in that profession. It will determine who, with what specialties and how much knowledge and skills have the inclusion criteria for the profession (3).