Nurses and independent fee-for-service practice: a critical view

A contemporary development in nursing in Australia is the move to independent private practice. This move is made in support of autonomy for the individual nurse practitioner and in the interests of improved patient care. This paper examines this development using the literature as data and critical theory as the framework of analysis. Critical theory argues that much human knowledge is bound by 'ideological' interests in either the technical or interpretative. Emancipatory knowledge attempts to peel off the various ideological layers in search of truth. Using work to examine the 'technical interest' and professionalism to examine the 'interpretative interest', it is argued that in the contemporary Australian health care system the nurse's claim to autonomy through independent practice calls for continuing debate and reflection.