Personality portraits, resilience, and professional identity among nursing students: a cross-sectional study

Professional identity among forensic medicine students: a cross-sectional study in Jiangsu Province, East China

BACKGROUND

Exploring the impact of professional identity on the academic performance of students is crucial for improving teaching effectiveness and educational outcomes in this field. Forensic medicine is a niche interdisciplinary discipline in the medical system. However, current educational literature on professional identity development does not adequately address forensic medicine students.

AIM

This study aimed to assess the professional identity among forensic medicine students, explore factors associated with professional identity, and determine the role of professional identity in shaping students' learning engagement and their subsequent academic achievements.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study was executed for forensic medicine students from a medical university in Jiangsu Province, East China between November and December 2023. Using the method of cluster sampling, 159 undergraduates majoring in forensic medicine were investigated. Data were collected using the demographic questionnaire, and the scales of professional identity, learning engagement, and academic achievement. Linear regression was used to explore professional identity-associated factors. Pearson correlation and mediation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between professional identity, learning engagement, and academic achievement.

RESULTS

The mean score of professional identity was 3.85. Grade (senior: β = 0.353, P = 0.004; fifth-year: β = 0.392, P = 0.001), student leader experience (β = 0.157, P = 0.037), specialty selection (major assignment: β=-0.215, P = 0.014), knowledge of the specialty before enrollment (β = 0.095, P = 0.033), and current knowledge of the specialty (β = 0.245, P = 0.000) were the statistically significant factors influencing professional identity. Professional identity, learning engagement, and academic achievement were positively correlated (P < 0.001). Learning engagement played an intermediate role between professional identity and academic achievement, accounting for 49.445% of the total effect.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight the pivotal role of professional identity as a strategic mechanism for improving academic achievement in forensic medicine education, with learning engagement serving as the primary mediating factor. As a multifaceted and evolving construct, professional identity is shaped by an interplay of personal, specialty and perception factors. Generating awareness and taking measures among forensic educators to enhance students' professional identity across stages may be crucial for promoting the quality of forensic talent training.

The role of professional identity, psychological resilience, and coping styles in mitigating compassion fatigue among geriatric services and management interns

OBJECTIVE

To examine the impact of professional identity, psychological resilience, and coping styles on compassion fatigue among Geriatric Services and Management interns. It further elucidates how these factors interact within the framework of Kumpfer's resilience model and Lazarus and Folkman's psychological stress and coping theory in managing compassion fatigue.

METHODS

A multicenter cross-sectional survey of 654 Geriatric Services and Management interns was designed.

RESULTS

Among the 636 valid questionnaires, the average score on the Compassion Fatigue Short Scale was 54.84. Psychological resilience and coping styles had direct effects on compassion fatigue. Professional identity influenced compassion fatigue through two mediating pathways: (a) psychological resilience (β = -0.036, P < 0.001); and (b) psychological resilience combined with coping styles (negative coping styles [β = -0.012, P < 0.001], and positive coping styles [β = -0.010, P < 0.001]).

CONCLUSION

Geriatric Services and Management interns generally exhibit moderate levels of compassion fatigue. Psychological resilience and coping styles fully mediated the relationship between professional identity and compassion fatigue. Training programs focusing on psychological resilience and coping strategies are recommended to maximize the protective effect of professional identity against compassion fatigue.

Effect of clinical learning environment on professional identity in intern nursing students: A parallel multivariable mediation model

BACKGROUND

The significance of the clinical learning environment for professional identity is increasingly acknowledged. However, few studies have explored the bidirectional effects of the clinical learning environment on professional identity.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to examine the relationship between the clinical learning environment and the professional identity of nursing interns, particularly the parallel mediating roles of perceived professional benefit and role stress.

METHODS

The study was conducted in three first-class general hospitals in China. A total of 377 nursing interns participated. A questionnaire was administered, which included socio-demographic information, the Clinical Learning Environment Scale, the Nurses' Perceived Professional Benefit Scale, the Role Stress Scale, and the Professional Identity Questionnaire. T-tests, analysis of variance, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the influencing factors of professional identity. And correlation analysis and mediation tests were performed to explore the factors influencing professional identity and potential mediating roles of perceived professional benefit and role stress.

RESULT

Professional identity was positively related to the clinical learning environment (r = 0.533, p < 0.01), perceived professional benefit (r = 0.643, p < 0.01) and negatively related to role stress (r = -0.348, p < 0.01). Furthermore, perceived professional benefit and role stress played parallel mediators between the clinical learning environment and professional identity.

CONCLUSION

This study emphasized the importance of focusing more on enhancing nursing students' sense of professional benefit and reducing role stress in the clinical learning environment to promote their professional identity.

Nursing postgraduates' innovative behaviour, influencing factors and educational requirements: a national cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Innovative behaviours are important for nursing postgraduates who are a significant reserve for future nursing career, thinking critically, utilizing technologies and solving complex problems. In nursing undergraduates' education, innovative behaviour is closely linked with the development of professional identity. However, there are limited studies exploring innovative behaviours, influencing factors and educational requirements of nursing postgraduates.

AIM

To investigate nursing postgraduates' innovative behaviour, influencing factors, and the correlation between innovative behaviour and professional identity. Moreover, exploring nursing postgraduates' requirements for innovational education.

METHODS

A national descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among postgraduate students in Chinese nursing schools between October and November 2022. A general information questionnaire, The Nurses' Innovative Behaviour Scale, the Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nurse Student, and a multiple-choice question about students' innovation education requirements were collected. The independent-sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), multiple linear regression, and Pearson's correlation analyses were conducted.

RESULTS

This study recruited 426 nursing postgraduates from 44 nursing schools across China. The mean score of innovative behaviour of nursing postgraduates was 38.96 ± 4.90 (min-max 10-50). Nursing postgraduates' professional identity was positively correlated with innovative behaviour (r = 0.436, P < 0.01). Participants who read scientific literature frequently, had a high level of professional identity, and grew up in urban areas had high levels of innovative behaviour (adjusted R2 = 0.244, P < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

It was determined that the level of innovative behaviour is associated with their professional identity and the frequence of reading scientific literature in nursing postgraduates. It is imperative for educators to foster an environment that encourages postgraduate nursing students to engage with a wider array of scholarly literature and elevates postgraduate nursing students' professional identity. Furthermore, the dissemination of advanced knowledge and the adoption of diverse pedagogical approaches are likely to meet the innovative demands of nursing postgraduates.

Features influencing surface acting of different clusters of nursing students in vocational college based on interpretable machine learning: A cross-sectional study

AIM

To explore and explain the mechanisms that influence surface acting in nursing students with different characteristics.

BACKGROUND

Nurses are now expected to deliver patient-centered care which necessitates the emotional labor. Surface acting, a form of emotional labor, can lead to negative outcomes. Given that nursing students are the backbone of the future nursing profession, there is an urgent need to investigate their surface acting tendencies and identify potential factors for early intervention.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

METHODS

This study was surveyed in a vocational college in Gansu, China. Participants completed the general information questionnaire, Bem Sex Role Inventory, Professional Identity Questionnaire of Nursing Students and Surface Acting Scale. K-means cluster analysis was performed, followed by random forest algorithm and SHapley Additive exPlanations based on Python program.

RESULTS

A total of 1241 nursing students from vocational college were investigated and were clustered into 4 groups. The five dimensions of professional identity had higher feature importance in all four groups, with professional self-image having the highest feature importance in Cluster 3. Professional self-image and understanding retention benefits and turnover risks were negative predictors of surface acting in all four groups. Social comparison and self-reflection, independence of career choice and social modeling regarding nursing profession were positively correlated with surface acting in specific groups. In Cluster 1, there exists a positive correlation between professional self-image and the constructs of social comparison and self-reflection; as well as a negative correlation between maternal education and understanding of retention benefits and turnover risks.

CONCLUSIONS

Professional identity significantly influences surface acting behaviors among nursing students, with professional self-image serving as a key negative predictor. Positive family conditions, access to educational resources, parental literacy, masculine or feminine gender roles and first-year nursing students, these traits have implications when dimensions of professional identity are used to predict surface acting behaviors.

Relationship between transition shock, resilience, career calling, and retention intention among new nurses: a moderated mediation model

BACKGROUND

Nurse shortage has become an ongoing and urgent problem worldwide. The high turnover rate of new nurses, who are the primary backup personnel for the nursing force, exacerbates the possibility of this situation. Transition shock has been demonstrated to be critical in influencing new nurses' retention intention. However, the mechanisms underlying this impact remain unclear.

OBJECTIVES

This study aims to explore transition shock's effect mechanism on retention intention among new nurses, and to clarify the career calling's mediating role and the resilience's moderating role in this relationship.

METHODS

This is a multicenter cross-sectional study. From January 28 to February 20, 2024, an online questionnaire survey was administered among 739 new nurses from 11 hospitals in Shanxi Province, China, using convenience sampling. The survey included a demographic information questionnaire, the Transition Shock of Newly Graduated Nurses Scale, the Medical Staff Resilience Scale, the Career Calling Scale, and the Nurses' Intention to Stay Scale. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation analysis, and the PROCESS Macro Model 4 and 7 for the regression.

RESULTS

Transition shock was significantly negatively correlated with retention intention (p < 0.001). Career calling played a partial mediating role between transition shock and retention intention, accounting for 63.53% of the total effect. Further, resilience moderated transition shock's effect on career calling; thereby, a moderated mediation model was developed.

CONCLUSIONS

Transition shock reduces retention intention by decreasing new nurses' levels of career calling, while resilience moderates this mechanism. Nursing managers can adopt measures to increase retention intention among new nurses by reducing their transition shock and enhancing their career calling education and resilience training.

TRIAL AND PROTOCOL REGISTRATION

This study was registered with the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry ( http://www.chictr.org/cn/ ) under the following ID: ChiCTR2400080373.