The concept of autonomy is of keen interest to health care providers, patients, and the entire nursing practice. The present drive of the heath care setting regularly requires a focused response in dealing with different health issues daily. Thus, autonomy affords a room for healthcare providers including nurses to use their judgments and to be apt in providing patient-centered care. Through a literature review, autonomy was examined as it relates to nursing, education, and science. A model case was employed to determine nurses’ perception of autonomy and understand how they develop and exhibit autonomy in their practice.
Concept Analysis of Autonomy
Autonomy provides the platform for self-directed nurses to act consciously without pressure in the implementation of their duties. Such roles demand the exercise of autonomy, a term which eludes succinct definition despite the fact that the preparation of practitioners for these roles relies on a clear understanding of its nature. This paper undertakes a concept analysis of autonomy, each step illustrated with examples taken from clinical practice, with the ultimate aim of offering an operational definition of autonomy. The concept of autonomy in the nursing profession is considered a requisite for professional standing. Consequently, professional nurse autonomy is the belief in the entirety of the client when making responsible optional decisions; which reflect advocacy for the client (Kramer & Schmalenberg, 1993).
I also believe that nursing is about empowering patients through teaching and positive reinforcement, giving them the autonomy to direct their own recovery or health maintenance. In doing so I believe that we are respecting their individuality and dignity.
I define my philosophy of nursing within the three nursing domains of person, health, and environment. My goal is to communicate the importance of nursing as a knowledge-based career, depending not only on the nurse fulfilling her role but also on the patient’s compliance. A patient must learn to provide self-care at home in the same capacity as the nurse would provide care in the clinical setting. I discuss various subjects within nursing. I explain why I want to be a nurse, what I believe a nurse’s role is, the different domains of nursing, and where I believe nursing will be in the future. My philosophy demonstrates the interdependence of the nursing domains. You cannot fully evaluate a person without evaluating their health,
There are a number of legal and ethical duties expected of nurses. Most of these involve care for patient’s autonomy and confidentiality despite the medical care. Failure to act regarding these can give rise to liability. One aspect of Patient’s autonomy involves giving or withholding his consent about treatment. This paper takes into account ‘consent’ as the aspect of law regarding nursing.
Nurses demonstrate the value of autonomy by acting on their own intuition daily to improve the quality of all aspects of human life. This is evident when a patient arrives into an urgent care center with an asthma attack. A prudent nurse will act autonomously by giving the patient a nebulizer treatment, place him on oxygen, or take the time to find out if there are standing orders and carry them out without a doctor’s order.
This article discusses about the process of nursing delegation. For the process of nursing delegation, it must have strong communication, empowered staff, and organizational support. The guidelines identify 5 rights of delegation, which include right task, right circumstances, right person, right direction & communication, and right supervision & evaluation. When a delegator, such as a nurse, delegates, they will remain responsible for the tasks that were delegated. Delegation of an action/task is done based on the patient’s safety and their quality of care. Following the process enables a nurse to appropriately delegate to benefit the care of the patient.
A few perspectives related nursing delegation such as professional standards, legal aspects and ethics affects will be analyzed to clarify the authorizing mechanisms of nursing delegation. At the end, a personal reflection will be identified and described how I will approach to delegation in my own nursing practice in the future. Keys points about how to delegate in nursing will be summarized in conclusion section.
Autonomy includes three primary conditions: (1) liberty (independence from controlling influences), (2) agency (capacity for intentional action), and (3) understanding (through informed consent) (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 100). According to Beauchamp & Childress (2009) to respect autonomous agents, one must acknowledge their right to hold views, to make choices, and to take actions based on their personal values and beliefs (p. 103). Respect for autonomy implies thaturges caregivers to respect theassist a patient in achieving? Heed? the autonomous choices of their patients. From there, patients can act intentionally and with full understanding when evaluating medical treatment modalities. Autonomy also includes a set of rules, one of which requires that providers honor patient decision-making rights by providing the truth, also known as veracity (Beauchamp & Childress, 2009, p. 103). In this case, several facets of the principle of respecting autonomy, specifically veracity, informed
“Autonomous nursing practice as defined as full command of expert knowledge and allowing for accountability and authority in decision making” (Creasia & Friberg, 2011, pg. 47). A doctor will more likely see a nurse as a professional once they show competence and autonomy, which in turn, will provide a positive nurse-physician relationship due to the trust built between professionals. A physician must be able to trust a nurse’s judgment and assessment skills to be able to provide a collaborative care for the patient. The wheel of professionalism is designed to compare nurses' professional behavior with other professions, which places university-based education as central to professionalism, which then leads to a strong code of ethics, professional recognition and continuing education to maintain nursing competence (Yam, 2004). As a nurse achieves a status of professionalism, a nurse will view oneself as an equal partner in the health care team, which in turn will boost confidence and support for a more proactive and confident nurse.
To begin with the person is the centre of the plan, to be consulted with and their views must always come first: It should include all aspects of their care, and every professional should work together to provide it. (Leathard 2000) Autonomy refers to an individuals’ ability to come to his or her own decisions and requires nurses to respect the choices patients make concerning their own lives (Hendrick 2000).However Gillon Argues that the principle respect for autonomy may need some restriction, otherwise we may be morally obliged to respect an autonomous course of action with unthinkable consequences.( Gillon 1986) Every human being has an intrinsic value, they all have a right to well being, to self-fulfilment and to as much control over their own lives as is consistent with others (British Association of Social Workers 2002).Professional Judgement and patient preference cannot be suspended if practice is to be safe and effective rather than routine(DOH 2005) Alex had to attend this session as it was within his Timetable, how could it have been effective?, he was unhappy and
Informed consent stands for self-determination and respect for autonomy. Autonomy is the most influential ethical principle and the main focal point in health care. It is a major concept in relation to informed consent and its simplest form can be seen as the patient’s right to determine what will or will not be done to his or her body. Expanding societal values and evolving patient centred healthcare system influences nursing practice greatly. In Canada, physicians are legally responsible for obtaining informed consent but nurses are also involved in every aspect of the informed consent process. For e.g. Nurses can perform this role when they notice that patients
Theory analysis offers a systematic method for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of a theory that ultimately helps validate its usefulness in directing and influencing clinical practice (Linder, 2010). Using the seven-step process outlined by Walker and Avant (2011), this paper will provide a theory analysis of the self-determination theory (SDT) to examine its meaningfulness and contribution to the nursing discipline with special attention to work engagement among nurses. Self-determination theory is a motivational and personality theory that explores the socioenvironmental causes that influence a person’s tendency toward psychological health and wellbeing, enhanced performance, and self-motivated behavior (Podlog & Brown, 2016). SDT analyzes intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to explain why people behave the way they do; specifically, when the basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence are met, self-motivated behaviors and effective performance will be actualized (Podlog & Brown, 2016).
Nursing is an all encompassing profession in which practitioners are not only proficient in technical medical functionality, they also have the obligation to remain compassionate and respectful of patients and as such are expected to adhere to pre established codes of ethics. Of these ethics, autonomy is of extreme importance as it offers patients a sense of personal authority during a time where they may feel as if their lives, or at the very least their health, is no longer under their control. Autonomy in the context of nursing allocates the patient and often their family with the final word on the course of treatment. The concept of patient autonomy is a highly variable subject in all fields of health care. It is a universal concept that varies widely in its meaning and interpretation. Autonomy in its simplest form can be defined as a state of independence or self governing (Atkins, 2006). Patient autonomy can also be defined as the ability to make once own decisions, based on one’s sound judgment. It is defined by the American Nurses Association (ANA, 2011) as the "agreement to respect another 's right to self determine a course of action; support of independent decision making." This seemingly straight forward ethical concept is rife with difficulties when one considers potential disagreements that may arise even when informed consent is provided, particularly among children or vulnerable people. Relevant research and
In essence, the role played by the nurse is to increase and facilitate the self-care abilities and level of the individual patient (Smith & Parker, 2015). As such, self-care is neither reflexive nor instinctive. Instead, it is either performed rationally or intentionally in response to an already known need. Based on this Orem's theory, rational response is learned through communication and interpersonal relations. Orem asserts that self-care agency can also be defined as the power to take action (Caruso, Cisar & Pipe, 2008). It is a complex capability developed to enable maturing adolescents and adults to recognize, identify, and understand various factors to be managed or controlled so as to decide about, develop, and perform realistic care measures. The capability discussed above is strongly dependent on culture-related values and lifelong experiences.
The third principle is autonomy; it deals with the ability to practice as a nurse and also it refers to the patient being able to make the decisions they want on their own. The issue is what constitutes good for a patient without infringing on the patient's autonomy or letting the patient come to serious harm.
Persons who are employed in medical careers, like nursing, must display autonomous behavior because it provides motivation for them to make decisions without requiring permission from somebody (Senturan et al., 2012). On the other hand, those who display low levels of autonomous behavior will often become submissive towards others and may show signs of obedience when it comes to decision making and protecting their personal independence. These people may be coerced into performing actions or behaviors that they would not normally do such as a person who is an accomplice to a criminal act. I display high levels of autonomous behavior due to the fact that I usually set goals for myself that require no help from others and after these goals are complete, my sense of well-being has increased tremendously.