An Examination of Nursing Home Personnel's Perceptions of Residents' Autonomy

Autonomy, especially of nursing home residents, concerns the essence of values such as personal freedom and independence. This study examines Collopy's six polar dimensions of autonomy from the perspective of 202 nursing home personnel from a sample of 15 nursing homes in West Central Florida. Using regression analysis, autonomy was examined with respect to four catego ries of variables: (a) nursing home staff background factors, for example, education; (b) nursing home staff attitudinal issues, for example, job satisfaction; (c) staffing issues, for example, turn over rates of nurses; and (d) formal facility and resident characteristics, for example, percentage of residents physically restrained. The results confirm that autonomy is a complex construct with considerable subtlety. The most predictive set of variables overall include race, educational at tainment, and employee type (i.e., certified nursing assistants vs. others). The results are dis cussed with respect to their implications for care.