THE SURVAYING STUDENTS IDENTITY STYLES IN UNDERGRADUATE CLINICAL NURSING EDUCATION: A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY

The formation of identity is influenced by interpersonal and acquired factors. In this regard, higher education can provide an opportunity for the formation of a stable identity and a framework for decision-making and problem-solving. The question now arises, is there an association between exposure to clinical field in training courses and identity styles of students?. hence, the study was conducted to survey the identity styles of students in clinical nursing education. This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. The research samples were nursing students from semesters of 4 to 7 at the end of clinical courses in 2018. Sampling method was census in this study. Data were collected using a demographic form and Identity Style Inventory (ISI-6G, Berzonsky). Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 19 using Chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests. In this study, 165 nursing students participated. The mean age of participants was 22 ± 6.2 years. 26.2% of male students had informational style and 27.2% of female students had normative identity style, but the results of this study suggested that there is no association between gender and identity styles (p> 0.05). In this study, there was a statistically significant difference between academic semester and identity styles (P = 0.04) and no s statistically significant difference between identity styles and age, marital status and place of residence (P >0.05).
  Surveying identity styles of students in different semesters at the end of clinical courses shows that identity formation may be affected by increasing the students' academic semester in clinical nursing education. This is a reminder of this point that training qualified students depends on the development of identity and attention to its formation. In this regard, it is necessary to pay attention to the factors of identity formation in undergraduate nursing education.