The Relationship Between Professional Identity And Career Decision-making Self-efficacy Of Nursing Undergraduates

BackgroundProfessional identity which is viewed as an important part of modern nursing talents’ quality has been an independent research topic in nursing field. However, the current domestic research of the nursing students’professional identity showed that compared with other education backgrounds nursing students, nursing undergraduates’ professional identity was relatively lower. Nursing undergraduates who lack identification of nursing would impact their perceptions and attitudes towards nursing, impair their job performance when employed, which further influence the development of nursing discipline. London’s career motivation theory points that individual’s career decisions can affect their professional identity, and what affect career decision mostly is the career decision-making self-efficacy.ObjectiveQuestionnaire investigation and interview method were used to describe the status quo of nursing undergraduates’ professional identity and career decision-making self-efficacy, to analyze the influencing factors as well as the relationship, in order to provide references for improving nursing undergraduates’ professional identity.Methods1 Questionnaire investigation.420 nursing undergraduates were stratified convenience sampling recruited. The instruments included three parts: first, the general information questionnaire, which was to collect the students general information; second, the professional identity questionnaire of nursing students, which developed by Hao Yu-fang was used to investigate the students status quo of professional identity; third, graduates’ career decision-making self-efficacy scale, which amended by Peng Yongxin and Long lirong was used to investigate the students status quo of career decision-making self-efficacy. All quantitative date was analyzed by the SPSS 19.0 statistical software, statistical methods included descriptive statistics, t test, analysis of variance, correlation analysis and regression analysis.2 Interview method. Purposive sampling method was used and 12 senior nursing undergraduates were interviewed by a semi-structured questionnaire, data were analyzed by content analysis method.Results1 Results of questionnaire investigation(1) Nursing undergraduates’ professional identity was in medium level, the average score of nursing undergraduates’ professional identity was (3.33±0.58), during which the social modeling dimension was the highest(3.69±0.87), while the benefit of retention and risk of turnover dimension was the lowest(3.07±0.76); There were significant differences between scores of totally professional identity in gender, academic background, family residence, father’s education level, mother’s education level, monthly consumption, and whether had part-time experiences or not(P<0.05), the score of nursing students who were male, science, rural, father and mother with a primal school education lever or less, monthly consumption was nor more than 300 yuan and had no part-time experiences was the lowest.(2) Nursing undergraduates’ career decision-making self-efficacy was in medium level,the average score of nursing undergraduates’ career decision-making self-efficacy was (3.43±0.63), during which the information collection dimension was the highest(3.56 ±0.66), while the problem-solving dimension was the lowest(3.32±0.74); There were significant differences between scores of totally career decision-making self-efficacy in gender, monthly consumption, whether a single-child or not and whether had part-time experiences or not (P<0.05), the score of nursing students who were female, monthly consumption was nor more than 300 yuan, not single-child and had no part-time experiences was the lowest.(3) Nursing undergraduates’ professional identity and its five dimensions were all positively correlated with career decision-making self-efficacy and its five dimensions. According to stepwise regression analysis, planning, problem-solving and self-evaluation can all explain 42.5% of the variance of professional identity.2 Results of interview method(1) Nursing undergraduates’professional identity was forming and developing through school education and clinical practice, which were in five areas: the role of nurses, professional characteristics, clinical working environment, professional emotions and professional value.(2) Nursing undergraduates’ professional identity was classed into three patterns: conflicting, adjusting, and developing. Nursing undergraduates’ who lacked the ability of planning and poorer problem-solving were the reasons why students’ experiencing conflicting identity; nursing undergraduates’ who were in adjusting identity pattern had made professional commitment when they choosing nursing and they spent less time on career exploration; nursing undergraduates’ who were in developing identity pattern were more likely to focus on positive factors when they were in difficulties and tried their best to improve their ability.ConclusionNursing undergraduates’ professional identity and career decision-making self-efficacy are positive correlation, the stronger the nursing undergraduates’ career decision-making self-efficacy, the higher the nursing undergraduates’ professional identity. Nursing undergraduates’ professional identity and career decision-making self-efficacy remain to be enhanced; nursing educators can bond the integration between academic education and clinical practice, take actions such as improving nursing undergraduates’ planning and problem-solving ability to improve their professional identity.