Relationships between reality shock, professional self-concept, and nursing students' perceived trust from nursing educators: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundNursing students establish their professional role through clinical practice. However, during the first clinical practice, they might experience reality shock given the gap between theory and practice, which could negatively influence their professional self-concept. Furthermore, nursing educators in clinical practice play an important role in improving nursing students' clinical experience. ObjectivesTo examine the relationship between nursing students' reality shock and professional self-concept, and to examine the associations of perceived trust from nursing educators with nursing students' reality shock and professional self-concept. DesignA cross-sectional, descriptive correlational study. SettingNursing schools in one metropolitan area and three cities in South Korea. ParticipantsData were collected from 184 nursing students who experienced their first clinical practice in preceding four weeks of data collection. MethodsSurveys assessing participants' characteristics, reality shock, professional self-concept, and perceived trust from nursing educators were conducted. A hierarchical regression analysis was performed to examine the relationship between reality shock and professional self-concept, and the relationships between perceived trust from nursing educators and nursing students' reality shock and professional self-concept. ResultsNursing students' reality shock was negatively related to their professional self-concept. Perceived interpersonal relationship with nursing educators was positively related to professional self-concept and negatively related to the experienced reality shock. Furthermore, this negative relationship decreased when reality shock was combined with perceived interpersonal relationship with nursing educators. ConclusionsNursing students' reality shock during their first clinical practice may be negatively associated with the establishment of their professional self-concept. However, students' reality shock could be reduced by enhancing their interpersonal relationship with the nursing educator, which might reduce the negative association of reality shock with professional self-concept. Therefore, nursing educators should develop skills to establish interpersonal relationships with students to positively influence students' clinical adaptation.