Construction Of A Theory Of Professional Values Growth And Its Application To Undergraduate Nursing Students Cultivation Program

Objective: This study aims to thoroughly explore the concept of nursing professional values and,based on that foundation,clarify key factors in the growth of nursing professional values during the development of our times.The methodology employed is oral history and grounded theory research.Moreover,by investigating the current state of undergraduate nursing students’ professional value cultivation,this study constructs a theoretical framework for their growth and formulates corresponding training programs.These efforts provide a richer and deeper theoretical basis for cultivating students’professional values in nursing disciplines,enabling them to respond to potential challenges arising from future healthcare talent development.Consequently,this study lays a solid foundation for nurturing mature professionals with sound nursing expertise who possess sophisticated professional values among undergraduate nursing students.Methods: This study employs a qualitative research approach,which is primarily divided into three parts.Part Ⅰ: Application of evolutionary and simultaneous concept analysis to define nursing professional valuesThe methods used for the conceptual analysis were Rodgers’ evolutionary conceptual analysis and Hasse’s simultaneous conceptual analysis method.A systematic literature search strategy is applied to retrieve relevant articles on nursing professional values published in the last decade(2012-2022).After screening,eligible articles are thoroughly read,and their contextual basis,attributes,prerequisites,consequences,related terms,alternative terms as well as practical and theoretical definitions are organized.Theme analysis is then employed to encode,classify,summarize and synthesize data in order to obtain the results of the conceptual analysis of nursing professional values.The study adopts a qualitative research approach and is divided into three main parts as follows.Part 2: Constructing a Nursing Professional Values Growth Theory based on Oral History-A Grounded Theory Study.This section of the research combines oral history with grounded theory research methods.Building upon the conceptual framework of nursing professional values and literature review in the previous stage,a three-stage sampling method is employed to select four groups of narrators who meet inclusion criteria.After discussion by the research team and pre-interviews,an official interview outline is formed for semi-structured in-depth interviews to collect career stories from nursing practitioners and learners at different ages,growth backgrounds,career stages,and job positions across various regions.The collected data are organized and analyzed using Max QDA software based on constant comparative analysis method and three-level coding approach.Part 3: Construction of a professional values development program for undergraduate nursing studentsThis section of the research builds upon previous studies and utilizes a scoping review method to systematically search Pub Med,CINAHL,Web of Science,Wiley,CNKI,Wanfang Data,and China Biomedical Literature Database for relevant literature on nursing student professional values cultivation both domestically and internationally.The collected literature is then organized,summarized and analyzed to gain an understanding of the current state of research in this field.Combining with the theoretical framework developed earlier in the study,a nursing undergraduate professional values growth theory is derived using theoretical derivation method.Based on this theory,a preliminary nursing undergraduate professional values cultivation program is constructed.After two rounds of expert meetings for review and modification purposes,the final version of the program for cultivating nursing undergraduate students’ professional values is formed.Results:1.Results of the concept analysis: After a systematic search a total of 50 pieces of literature were,included and the analysis of the data revealed that the evolutionary process of nursing professional values was divided into three stages,namely initial exploration-practical meaning,in-depth-connotation identification and development--structural inquiry,whose prerequisites include five themes,namely personal background(personal values,culture,gender),professional perception,professional education,practice environment,and ethical and moral awareness;attributes include three themes,namely human nature(dignity,care,altruism),virtue(responsibility,equality,justice,honesty)and rationality(autonomy an.Consequencessequences include three themesbehavioursbehaviors,beliefs and feelings,and culminated in a conceptual framework of nursing professional values that provided the conceptual basis for the next step of the study.2.Results of the grounded theory study: The final number of interviewees included in this study was 33,and a nursing professional values growth theory was developed,which consisted of five components: key aspects,opportunities,drivers,performance,and evaluation.The core element in the nursing professional values growth theory is the key link,which includes five stages,namely the root construction stage,the consciousness awakening stage,the experiential reflection stage,the cognitive development stage and the reflexive action stage;the opportunity includes the following two themes,which are the organisational opportunity-interpersonal environmental support(being needed,recognised,trusted,being(being needed,recognised,trusted,encouraged,given company),and personal opportunities-integration(balancing ideals and reality,emotional integration,realisation of self-worth);the drivers include socio-cultural(social acceptance,organisational culture,social prejudice,lack of respect from professional groups,ambiguous professional orientation),and self-identity(personality traits,finding meaning in work,subjective motivation,confusion);the manifestations include humanistic feelings(fraternity,empathy,caring)and moral feelings(responsibility,spirit of discretion,kindness,sincere attitude,sense of equality);and the last part of the evaluation includes a sense of stability,professionalism and positive transfer.The theory provides theoretical support for the next step in constructing a professional values development framework for undergraduate nursing students.3.Results of the cultivation programme construction: In this part of the study,the scoping review included 14 pieces of literature,which were collated and analysed on the following two topics: models related to professional values in nursing and the current state of research on professional values development for nursing students.The theoretical derivation of the nursing professional values growth theory developed in the previous study,the resulting professional values growth theory for undergraduate nursing students consisted of five parts,namely,key links(initiation stage,awareness stage,core stage,planning stage),opportunities(organisational opportunity-accompaniment,personal opportunity-integration),drivers(socio-cultural-social recognition,self-identity-subjective motivation),expressions(humanistic sentiments,moral emotions),and outcomes(professional value system prototype).A total of five experts in the relevant fields were invited to this study,and after two rounds of expert meetings,a program for the training of undergraduate nursing students was finally developed,which consists of four parts: training objectives(overall objectives,hierarchical objectives),training process and content(initiation phase,awareness phase,core phase,planning phase),environment and conditions(internal conditions,external conditions),and evaluation results(student self-assessment,faculty perspective).Conclusion:1.The conceptual framework of nursing professional values developed in this study,which is based on an empirical philosophical foundation,focuses on the generalisation of the prerequisites,attributes and consequences of nursing professional values,fully demonstrates the longitudinal development process of professional values,clarifies the relationship between nursing professional values and various other variables in existing research,and provides a conceptual basis for the further development of related theories.2.This study is based on the research method of rooted theory.By collecting oral history data from practitioners in the nursing professional field of different geographical areas,ages and positions,nursing professional values growth theory containing five components(key aspects,opportunities,drivers,performance and evaluation)are formed on the basis of three-level coding,which clarifies in detail the relevant concepts in the nursing professional values growth theory and more clearly The key aspects of the growth of professional values in nursing are summarised and summarised,and five stages(foundation building stage,consciousness awakening stage,experiential reflection stage,cognitive development stage and reflexive action stage)are developed,and the development and growth process in each stage is explained,showing the essential elements in the growth of one’s professional values,and indicating the external conditions and mechanisms that should be provided for the cultivation of professional values in the future.The development and growth process in each of these stages is explained,showing the elements that are essential for the growth of one’s professional values and providing strategic directions for the external conditions and mechanisms that drive the internal motivation for the development of future professional values.3.This study develops a structured programme for cultivating professional values among undergraduate nursing students based on a standardised and systematic theoretical study.The programme is based on a solid theoretical foundation and is integrated with the current undergraduate nursing training model in a permeable manner.The programme is designed with student-centred teaching and learning activities in mind,using available resources to mobilise students’ active participation,embedding cumulative learning,reflective learning and collaborative learning among peers into the professional values development programme,and adopting multiple perspectives to comprehensively evaluate the training effects.The programme provides educational strategies and methods for the growth and internalisation of professional values for undergraduate nursing students,enriching the strategies for cultivating values in undergraduate nursing education and offering the possibility of cultivating nursing talents with mature professional values.