Graduate entry nursing students' development of professional nursing self: A longitudinal case study

IF 3.6 2区医学 Q1 EDUCATION, SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINES

Nurse Education Today Pub Date : 2025-03-29 DOI:10.1016/j.nedt.2025.106722

Patricia McClunie-Trust , Rachel Macdiarmid , Virginia Jones , Philippa Marriott , Rhona Winnington , Kay Shannon , Jan Dewar , Rebecca J. Jarden

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Abstract

Background

Graduate-entry nursing students rapidly transition to the healthcare workforce. Nursing values, knowledge, and skills contribute to the development of these learners' professional nursing self as they shift into their new careers.

Objectives

This research aimed to understand how graduate entry nursing students a) develop a sense of self as a nurse and b) articulate that sense of self in thinking, speaking and acting as a nurse.

Design

Longitudinal case study.

Setting

This study was conducted at four tertiary education institutions in Australia and New Zealand.

Participants

Twenty-one students within two cohorts of graduate entry nursing preregistration Master's degree programmes.

Methods

The longitudinal case study included 21 graduate entry nursing student participants across two cohorts, two countries, and four tertiary educational programmes. Participants were interviewed up to four times over three years, 57 interviews in total, between 2020 and 2023. In the data analysis, researchers used Interpretive Description to identify themes.

Results

The analysis revealed three themes, each with two subthemes. Themes included Situating the self in nursing, which encompasses understanding one's purpose in nursing and finding one's self in nursing; Influences on professional identity, which involves influential nurses and a growing sense of connection and belonging; and Participants' Emerging professional identity as a sense of nursing self and caring for self to care for others.

Conclusion

Graduate entry nursing students' sense of self as nurses evolved through aligning professional and personal values and identifying a connection with what brings meaning and a sense of purpose to their working lives. Graduateness was identified as an important influence, built upon what these graduate-entry nursing students bring to their practice and the profession. The strong psychological influence of nurses on both students and early career nurses highlights the importance of fostering a psychologically safe professional environment from educational programmes and beyond.

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来源期刊

Nurse Education Today 医学-护理

CiteScore

6.90

自引率

12.80%

发文量

349

审稿时长

58 days

期刊介绍： Nurse Education Today is the leading international journal providing a forum for the publication of high quality original research, review and debate in the discussion of nursing, midwifery and interprofessional health care education, publishing papers which contribute to the advancement of educational theory and pedagogy that support the evidence-based practice for educationalists worldwide. The journal stimulates and values critical scholarly debate on issues that have strategic relevance for leaders of health care education. The journal publishes the highest quality scholarly contributions reflecting the diversity of people, health and education systems worldwide, by publishing research that employs rigorous methodology as well as by publishing papers that highlight the theoretical underpinnings of education and systems globally. The journal will publish papers that show depth, rigour, originality and high standards of presentation, in particular, work that is original, analytical and constructively critical of both previous work and current initiatives. Authors are invited to submit original research, systematic and scholarly reviews, and critical papers which will stimulate debate on research, policy, theory or philosophy of nursing and related health care education, and which will meet and develop the journal''s high academic and ethical standards.