Abstract:
The purposes of this descriptive research were to study of professional nurses autonomy in hospitals and medical centers, ministry of public health, classified by education level, work experience, special program training , work position, department of working , and level of supervision by head of unit. The sample were 431 professional nurses who were selected using multi-stage sampling technique. Applied tools to collect data include questionnaire based on nursing autonomy concept developed by Schutzenhofer (1987), Ballou (1998), Parker et al. (2001) and Brown (1982). The questionnaire was developed associated with the result of in-depth interviewing in issue of nursing professional autonomy with 10 professional nurses. The questionnaire was validated by a panel experts who checked for content validity. Its reliability was tested by cronbachs alpha coefficient where in reliability equaled .94, .90. Data was statistically analyzed by frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way ANOVA. Major finding were as follows: 1. professional nurses autonomy in hospitals and medical centers was found in good level (mean 3.99) Aspect of protecting the patient right was found in the highest level (mean 4.26), while aspect of quality development, innovation and technology was found in lowest level (mean 3.48). 2. nurses with difference educational level, work position and level of supervision perceived their professional autonomy level differently, statistically significant at 0.5. While nurses with special program trained, and nurses worked in different department perceived their professional autonomy level indifferently.