Evaluation of Professional Self-Concept And its Relationship Factors: A study Among Nursing Students in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

 Professional self-concept (PSC) is an important issue concerning the nursing profession and is reflected as the key concept in nursing professionalism. Even though previous studies investigated this nursing concept and its related factors among nursing students,  meanwhile, their results showed there is no consensus.

 To assess professional self-concepts among senior nursing students and examine its relationship with gender and, Grade Point Average (GPA).

 This cross-sectional study included 157 nursing students selected by a convenience sampling among senior nursing students in the seventh semester in January  2020, at Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS), Iran. The data were collected using Cowin’s 36-item questionnaire of  NPSC which measures nursing self-concept in six dimensions.

 The age of undergraduate nursing students vary from 22 to 24 years old (22.58 ± 98). Two-thirds of the students were female (66%) and married (71%). The nursing students reported a total mean score of PSC was (161.1 ± 3.27). The highest mean score of the PSC dimensions belonged to communication (27.7 ± 1.17) and the lowest mean score was observed for self-esteem (25.52 ± 1.06).There was no significant difference between gender and total professional self-concept and its dimensions and also no relationship with GPA  except for the staff relations subscale, (r= -.198, p<0.05) and leadership subscale (r= -.210, p<0.05) which was a negative and significantly correlated but the correlation coefficients were weak (<0.3).

 Given a moderate level of total professional self-concept and the lowest dimensions in self-esteem among nursing students, it is recommended that nursing students’s professional self-concept and its dimensions specifically in self-esteem, which can boost their nursing professionalism, be given more consideration.