Nurse's perceptions of their group goal attainment capability and professional autonomy: a pilot study.

Aim: A pilot study to examine staff nurses' perceptions of, and relationships between, group goal attainment capability and professional autonomy.

Background: A nursing group's capability to employ appropriate nursing interventions leads to improvement in patient outcomes. Nurses' goal attainment capability plays a role in achieving high-quality patient outcomes and may be related to professional autonomy.

Method: Staff nurses (N = 90) in one community hospital completed the Sieloff-King Assessment of Group Goal Attainment Capability within Organizations and the Nursing Activity Scale instrument.

Results: Staff nurses reported high goal attainment capability and high professional autonomy, and a positive significant but weak correlation (r = 0.24, P < 0.05) was found between nurses' perceptions of group goal attainment capability and perceptions of professional autonomy. Three of the eight group goal attainment subscales were positively correlated with professional autonomy including: group leaders' goal attainment capability competency, goals/outcomes competency and goal attainment capability perspective.

Conclusion: While three subscales of goal attainment capability were significant, the correlations were weak between professional autonomy and group leader's goal attainment competency, goals/outcome competency and goal attainment perspective.

Implications For Nursing Management: Nurse managers can play a key role in nurses' group goal attainment capability and perceived professional autonomy.