Nursing Automony and Patients' Rights: Development of a Nursing Attitude Scale

Abstract

A 69-item attitude scale was constructed and administered to 702 nurses in five different settings. A principal componentsfactor analysis results in three subscales that adequately represented the intent of the study: (1) nursing autonomy and advocacy; (2) patients' rights; and (3) rejection of traditional rule limitations. The subscales clearly differentiated between the different samples of nurses. Higher scores were associated with education, leadership, academic setting and non-traditional social climate.