en تخصصي Special پژوهشي Research <div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_11" language="JavaScript" on=""><strong>Background</strong>: Professional autonomy is a crucial component of the nursing profession. It enables nurses to make timely decisions at the patient&rsquo;s bedside. The competency of human resources, especially nurses, is essential in maintaining patient safety and ensuring high-quality services. This study investigates nurses&rsquo; professional autonomy and its association with patient safety competency.<br> <strong>Methods</strong>: This descriptive-correlational study was conducted on 200 nurses in educational-therapeutic hospitals affiliated with Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz City, Iran, in 2021. They were recruited utilizing stratified random sampling. Data collection tools comprised a demographic questionnaire, professional autonomy questionnaire, and patient safety competency self-evaluation questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, and median), the Mann-Whitney U test, the Kruskal-Wallis test, the Kendall Tau, and Spearman non-parametric correlation coefficients in SPSS software, version 26. P<0.05 was considered significant.<br> <strong>Results</strong>: Based on the study of the 200 nurses participating, 120 (60%) experienced a high level of professional autonomy, and 150 (75.0%) reported a moderate level of patient safety competence. There was a strong correlation between the nurses&rsquo; professional autonomy and their patient safety competence (P<0.001).<br> <strong>Conclusion</strong>: According to the findings, promotion of professional autonomy is directly related to patient safety competence in nurses, which in turn improves the quality of care. &nbsp; It is recommended to adopt appropriate strategies and necessary policies by managers to improve the professional autonomy of nurses.<br> <illegal tag=""> </illegal></div> Professional autonomy, Patient safety competency, Nurse 297 306 http://jccnc.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-663-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Fatemeh Molaei Tavani Fatemeh602.tavana@gmail.com 100319475328460011756 100319475328460011756 No Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. Parvin Rahmani parvinrahmani1374@yahoo.com 100319475328460011757 100319475328460011757 No Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. Mozhgan Behshid Mozhganbehshid@hotmail.com 100319475328460011758 100319475328460011758 No Tabriz Health Services Management Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. Zahra Sheikhalipour sheikhalipourz@gmail.com 100319475328460011759 100319475328460011759 No Department of Medical-Surgical Nursing, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. Omid Zadi omid.zd.axule73@gmail.com‏ 100319475328460011760 100319475328460011760 Yes Department of Operating Room Technology, Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.