Influencing factors and status of professional identity among undergraduate nursing students at school

Abstract

Objective To explore the current situation and influencing factors of professional identity among undergraduate nursing students at school.Methods A survey was conducted with a total sample of 405 undergraduate nursing students at school using self-designed Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nursing Students.Descriptive statistics and Hierarchical multiple regressions were used to analyze the data in this study.Results For undergraduate nursing students at school,the score of professional identity of nursing students was (3.20 ± 0.43).However,internal distribution was unbalanced,with higher professional expectation and lower professional cognition.Students' gender (β =-0.243,t =-11.015 ;P ＜ 0.05) and career choice reason (β =0.027,t =13.009 ; P ＜ 0.05) were the influencing factors,with an overall of 50.8％ of explained variance in professional identity.Whether was only child or cadre students,and what grade were no significant influencing for professional identity of students.Conclusions The results indicate that professional identity education should be implemented in each stage of nursing education.Nursing administrators should carry out the professional identity education as a systemic engineering combing macro-control with micro-treatment,analyze related reasons and adopt different measures aiming at different gender and career choice,conduct professional thought and emotional education to promote students' professional identity. Key words: Teaching; Professional identity; Nursing students