This document discusses the development of professional identity in nursing students. It states that professional identity formation is a continuous process that begins in nursing school and evolves throughout one's career. It involves internalizing seven core values from the NLN Education Competencies Model, including excellence, caring, integrity, diversity, holism, patient-centeredness, and ethical practice. Nurse educators play an important role in serving as role models and facilitating guided reflection on clinical experiences to help students assimilate professional nursing roles and continue developing their professional identity.

1. 138 Nursing Education Perspectives
Headlines from the NLN
The Formation of Professional Identity in Nursing
E D I T O R ’ S N O T E . This is the fourth in a series of
Headlines from
the NLN designed to facilitate use of the NLN Education
Competencies Model. Previous articles were in 2012 in the
May-
June, September-October, and November-December issues.
URSING STUDENTS HAVE A V IS ION OF HOW
THEY EXPECT TO BE AS PROFESSIONAL NURSES.
Entering students will often express the desire to take care of
peo-
ple, helping them get well or, at the least, feel better. The
develop-
ment of professional identity is a continuous process that begins
with admission to the nursing program and evolves throughout
one’s
professional career in a dynamic and fluid process where
interact-
ing relationships of education and practice lead to self-
reflection,
growth, and human flourishing. The process must be consistent
with
the profession’s history, goals, and codes of ethics while
“distin-

2. guish[ing] the practice of nurses from that of other health care
providers” (National League for Nursing [NLN], 2010, p. 68).
Professional identity involves the internalization of seven core
values integrated throughout the NLN’s Education
Competencies
Model and applicable to all types of nursing education
programs.
“These…values become self-evident as the nurse learns, gains
experience, and grows in the profession” (NLN, 2010, p. 68).
They
are reflected in the practice setting in thinking, actions, and
behav-
iors and how the nurse treats co-workers and patients. The nurse
is
expected to demonstrate professionalism and a dedication to the
values, knowledge, skills, and ethical comportment that is
nursing
(Sullivan, 2005).
Nursing education involves learning a body of knowledge foun-
dational to nursing practice, but knowledge alone is not
sufficient.
Through educational programs and learning opportunities,
nursing
students come to know and understand the core values and
beliefs
of the profession as well as the context of professional practice.
Increasingly competent and confident in the mores of the
profes-
sion, nursing students and graduates must internalize the core
val-
ues that emphasize a culture of excellence, caring, and integrity
with diversity, holism, patient-centeredness, and ethical practice
valued and applied in practice. Nurse educators and clinicians
in

3. clinical settings serve as critical role models for students as
they
gradually assimilate the roles of professional nursing practice.
Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, and Day tell us that transformation,
the change that occurs between the lay person and a nurse “pre-
pared to respond with respect and skill to people who are
vulnera-
ble or suffering…occurs in every aspect of a nursing student’s
edu-
cation” (2010, p. 166). “Guided reflection on their clinical
experi-
ences and how they might improve on their day’s practice” is
criti-
cal to the nursing student’s learning (Benner et al., p. 167).
The NLN Education Competencies Model encompasses six inte-
grating concepts central to nursing practice. In the design of the
curriculum, it is important to examine each concept in terms of
knowledge, practice know-how, and ethical comportment (KPE)
critical to student learning. Because these integrating concepts
and KPEs are essential to the whole of nursing practice, we
must
consider how and where they are situated in learning
experiences
that lead to established competencies and course and program
out-
comes (NLN, 2010).
Sometime in the clinical setting, students will encounter nurses
who fail to follow the institution’s written policy. These
students
may believe the nurse is doing the procedure correctly and what
they learned in their educational program is no longer current.
Implementing a “guided reflection” (Benner et al., 2010), nurse

4. educators can incorporate the integrating concepts to address
the
student’s findings. For example, when exploring context and
envi-
ronment (the setting in which something happens, the circum-
stances that lie behind a situation or event), discuss with
students
the circumstances that may have led to the nurse’s decision to
work
around written policies and procedures. When discussing quality
and safety (emphasis on system effectiveness to provide quality
health care and a safe environment), talk about the nurse’s
respon-
sibility when witnessing a practice that deviates from standards,
policies, or procedures.
The opportunity to reflect on clinical learning experiences
increases the power of experiential learning (Benner, 2010). It
also
encourages a just culture, where factors that lead to error are
eval-
uated for better future outcomes. By encouraging students to
reflect
on patient care assignments while emphasizing the “courage to
con-
tinually work to improve the care for patients, families, and
commu-
nities” (NLN, p. 68), faculty contribute to the formation of
profes-
sional identity evident in the nurse’s way of being, knowing,
and
doing (NLN, 2010, p. 35). NLN
Contributed by
June Larson, MS, RN, ANEF

5. Marilyn Brady, PhD, RN
Lynn Engelmann, EdD, RN, CNE, ANEF
Bro. Ignatius Perkins, OP, PhD, RN, FAAN, ANEF
Cathleen Shultz, PhD, RN, CNE, FAAN, ANEF
References
Benner, P., Sutphen, M., Leonard, V., & Day, L. (2010).
Educating
nurses: A call for radical transformation. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
National League for Nursing (NLN). (2010). Outcomes and
compe-
tencies for graduates of practical/vocational, diploma, associate
degree, baccalaureate, master’s, practice doctorate, and research
doctorates in nursing. New York, NY: Author.
Sullivan, W. (2005). Work and integrity: The crisis and promise
of
professionalism in America. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
N
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further
reproduction prohibited without
permission.