Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of professional autonomy, role conflict, job stress, and professional self-concept of medical support nurses and the relationship between these variables, and to identify factors that affec...
Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of professional autonomy, role conflict, job stress, and professional self-concept of medical support nurses and the relationship between these variables, and to identify factors that affect professional self-concept. Through this, we aim to provide basic data needed to develop effective interventions and organizational support measures to improve the professional self-concept of physician assistant nurses.
Methods: Study is descriptive as a research study, the subjects of the study were physician assistant nurses who replaced doctors working at one tertiary general hospital and one general hospital in metropolitan city B. A convenience sample of 137 people who understood the purpose of the study and agreed to the survey was conducted. The data collection period was from August 20, 2025 to September 15, 2025, using a structured self-report questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using the SPSS 27.0 program using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Scheffé test, Pearson correlation coefficient, and multiple regression analysis.
Results: The study revealed the following.
1. The total number of participants was 137, with 107 females (78.1%) and 30 males (21.9%). As for age, 94 people (68.6%) were in their 30s, followed by 31 people in their 20s (22.6%) and 12 people (8.8%) in their 40s or older. In terms of marital status, 82 people (59.9%) were unmarried. The number of subjects without religion accounted for the majority with 106 people (77.4%). In terms of educational background, the number of bachelor's degrees was the largest with 119 (86.9%), followed by 12 professional scholars (8.8%) and 6 master's or higher (4.4%). The average clinical experience was 102.54±55.45 months, and the average experience as a medical support nurse was 51.23±45.50 months. In terms of work type, full-time workers accounted for the majority with 129 (94.2%), and 69 (50.4%) were on-call. As for the treatment department, the surgical department was the largest with 69 people (50.4%), 59 people (43.1%) in the internal medicine department and 9 others (6.6%). As for the annual salary, the 50 million won range was the most with 57 people (41.6%). Job satisfaction was ‘average’ for 66 people (48.2%) and ‘satisfied’ for 50 people (36.5%). As for the placement-related training, 99 people (72.3%) were not trained before placement, and 86 (62.8%) were trained after placement.
2. The subject's professional autonomy averaged 102.64±15.53 out of 150 points, the average score for role conflict was 115.50±21.71 out of 170, the average score for job stress was 53.29±9.34 out of 90 points, and the average score for professional self-concept was 125.55±21.56 out of 180 points.
3. According to the general characteristics of participants, there was a statistically significant difference in professional self-concept depending on job satisfaction (F=16.15, p<.001).
4. The subject's professional self-concept had a statistically significant positive correlation with professional autonomy (r=.72, p<.001) and a statistically significant negative correlation with role conflict (r=-.18, p=.035) and job stress (r=-.46, p<.001). The subject's professional autonomy had a significant negative correlation with role conflict and job stress. The subject's role conflict showed a significant positive correlation with job stress.
5. The factors affecting professional self-concept were job satisfaction (β=.34, p=.003), professional autonomy (β=.78, p<.001), role conflict (β=-.04, p=.034), and the interpersonal relationship factor, which is a subdomain of job stress (β=-2.46, p=.025). The total explanatory power of these variables for professional self-concept was 53.1%.
Conclusions: In the results of this study, it was confirmed that the human relationship of professional autonomy, role conflict, and job stress of medical support nurses has an effect on the professional self-concept. In particular, professional autonomy suggests that the freedom of judgment and decision-making authority experienced by healthcare support nurses in clinical settings are important factors in forming their professional self-concept. On the other hand, the higher the role conflict and human relations stress, the more significantly the professional self-concept decreased, confirming that role ambiguity, conflict demand, and collaboration conflict act as a direct impediment to professional recognition. Therefore, in order to promote the professional self-concept of medical support nurses, the level of autonomy, role conflict, and level of human relations stress should be systematically assessed, and structural interventions such as role clarification, collaboration foundation reinforcement, and interpersonal stress relief should be carried out in parallel along with organizational support to improve job satisfaction.