Lived Experiences of Aklan Nurses on Hospital Standard Operating Procedures

This qualitative study was under taken in selected hospital in Aklan to explore the lived experiences of nurses in implementing adhering to hospital standard operating procedure in the daily practice. The study revealed that deviation from protocols are rarely act of negligence: instead, they are often calculated, emotional taxing decisions by systemic resource constraints, high patient volumes, and the urgent need to prioritize life-saving interventions over administrative sequences. The findings illustrate a professional evolution where experienced nurses view standard operating procedures as navigational guides rather than inflexible rules, redefining accountability as “justifiable adaptation” backed by clinical reasoning. Thus, this study shows that true professional accountability in Aklan’s healthcare settings lies in the balance between following established protocols and exercising the moral courage to adapt when systemic failures or critical patient needs arise.