Professional governance is a foundational concept in nursing. It describes how healthcare professionals direct, control, and regulate their practice within organizations.

In 1992, Dr Robert Hess first popularized the phrase as a multidimensional organizational characteristic. Specifically, it includes the structures and processes by which professionals direct, control, and regulate goal-oriented efforts of one another. Professional governance is NOT a synonym for shared governance. Instead, it encompasses a continuum from traditional to shared to self governance. In 1994, Hess further promoted the phrase by creating and copyrighting The Index of Professional Governance and The Index of Professional Nursing Governance. As a result, these survey instruments remain the only valid, reliable, contemporary means of specifically quantifying professional governance, including shared governance.

What Is Shared Governance?

Shared governance is a managerial innovation that gives healthcare professionals control over their practice. Furthermore, it extends their influence over supporting resources that managers previously controlled alone. In addition, it reconciles the sometimes competing roles of being a professional and an employee. The IPNG/IPG measures what is being controlled in an organization, to what extent and by whom. Organizations that reach the shared governance threshold are eligible for free accreditation by the Forum for Shared Governance.