NURSES PERCEPTION OF FACTORS INFLUENCING PROFESSIONAL AUTONOMY IN NURSING: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Autonomy, is the central element for the professional practice. The purpose of this study was to discover the perceptions of nurses about professional Autonomy in nursing.
In this qualitative content-analysis approach study, the data were collected through unstructured in-depth interviews [8 individual interviews]. The participants were chosen using purposeful sampling from clinical nurses in Golestan, Iran, 2015. Formal or conventional qualitative content analysis was performed by the MAXDQA software.
Due to analysis of interviews, 260 primary cods, 11 categories and 3 themes were achieved. The theme included: 1- Individual factors, 2- Organizational factors, 3- Health policy factors. These themes reflect the dimensions and characteristics of perceived sense of professional autonomy in nursing.
This study provided the image of nurse’s understanding from professional autonomy regard the real experiences in work field that often remains hidden from view. The development of policies and strategies to enhance the professional autonomy are necessary.