Factors Associated with Nurses’ Professional Autonomy: A Narrative Review

Background and purpose: Autonomy is considered an essential component of professional status. Nurses need professional agencies to create and maintain patient safety, improve the quality of patient care, reduce mortality, increase job satisfaction, and maintain jobs. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the factors associated with nurses' professional independence .Materials and method: This study is a narrative review conducted based on PRISMA guidelines. The Latin keywords used in this study were professional autonomy, nurses, clinical decision making, nursing staff, hospital. The search was conducted in all valid and available English databases including CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and Persian databases including Irandoc, Magiran and SID from 2010 to 2024 .Results: When searching databases and information sources, 901 articles were found. Finally, 18 descriptive quantitative articles that were most relevant to the objectives of the present study were selected and analyzed. According to the results of the studies, the most important factors related to the professional independence of nurses were divided into six groups: individual factors (age, education), organizational factors (management support), collaborative factors (teamwork), professional development factors (further training), psychosocial factors (job satisfaction), and external factors (health system structure) .Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, nursing managers can eliminate the barriers to professional independence of nurses by considering the factors associated with professional independence .

Factors Associated with Nurses’ Professional Autonomy: A Narrative Review Keywords:

professional autonomy , nurses , clinical decision-making , nursing staff