Patient autonomy in care: a theoretical framework for nursing

Patient autonomy has increasingly become an issue in a health care system that often promotes dependence in decision making. The complex technology of health care creates situations in which difficult decisions need to be made by patients and their families. Nurses are important participants in that decision-making process. Models available for developing a theoretical approach to patient autonomy traditionally have been limited to ethics literature. A more recent approach to personal autonomy is Meyer's philosophical feminist perspective. Any philosophical approach to patient autonomy must be congruent with other critical nursing concepts. In addition, a model of patient autonomy for nursing must be useful for persons who operate at various functional levels. The model, Patient-Autonomy in Care, based on the Meyer's model, was developed to incorporate the special vulnerability and functional needs of patients in the health care system.