Introduction:

Nurses play the independent, dependent and interdependent roles to care; the practice environment directly affects the performance of these roles and thus the outcomes of care.

Objective:

To compare the performance of the independent role of nurses and the practice environment in a group of inpatient services in both private and public clinic institutions.

Methods:

Descriptive comparative study, purposive sample of 210 nurses. Data was collected through the Multinational Survey on the Relationship between the Professional Role of the Nurse and his/her workplace, and the analysis was made through strategies of univariate and bivariate analysis.

Results:

72 % of nurses reported that their main role is to oversee the care of others. Not differing significantly according to the nature of the institution, nurses spend much of their time performing actions not directly related to their professional role by limiting the time for direct care. There is a difference between public and private clinic institutions regarding the score given by nurses to the practice environment of their institution (p-value: 0.000).

Conclusions:

It is identified a need to assess the achievement of the independent role and the practice environmental factors to implement measures that foster the quality and safety of care.

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