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The nursing profession relies on nurse educators to provide the best means of preparing students to become professionals. Data about the relationship between educational preparation and autonomy are unclear. Although there are indications in the literature that empowerment through teaching may enable students to gain their fullest potential and thus become more autonomous, evidence to support these assertions is limited.Nurse educators are responsible for creating an environment that is conducive to learning and developing professional attributes such as autonomy in students.This descriptive correlational study, using multiple linear regression, examined the relationships and extent to which the variables of students perceptions of faculties teaching strategies, age, race, marital status, and work experience, and perceptions of learner empowerment predict the criterion variable of perceptions of autonomy in senior female generic baccalaureate degree students. The analysis should help shed light on considerations in the development of autonomy in nursing students and would be useful to faculty teaching in nursing programs.

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Cynthia Glawe Mailloux PhD, RN: Studied Nursing and Nursing Education at Penn State University and has worked as a nurse educator for over 20 years. Presently Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Nursing at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania

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