Nurses' perceived autonomy and advocacy and perception of patients' rights

This descriptive, correlational study was designed to determine the relationship between registered nurses' perceptions of autonomy and patient advocacy and their perceptions of patients' rights in clinical practice. The Nursing Autonomy/Patients' Rights Questionnaire was used as the measurement tool for the study. The convenience sample was comprised of 76 registered nurses, practicing in a medical center hospital setting. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. A significant positive correlation (r = 0.6217, , df = 74) was found between registered nurses' perceptions of nursing autonomy and patient advocacy and perceptions of patients' rights. Therefore, the hypothesis which stated the greater the registered nurses' perceptions of autonomy and patient advocacy, the greater the perceptions of patients' rights in the hospital setting, was supported.