Challenges of Professional Identity Formation in Nursing Students: A Systematic Review

Professional identity is an important process in the creation and expansion of the nursing profession, which is created over time and includes gaining insight into professional performance and creating the ideals and values of the profession. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of determining the challenges of professional identity formation in nursing students.

The present study was conducted using a systematic review method. Articles were searched using the keywords Professional Identity, Challenges, Nursing Students, Nursing and its Persian equivalent Professional Identity, Challenges, Nursing Students and Nursing. The search for Persian and English articles was conducted in the internal databases of SID and IRANDOC and external databases of PubMed, ProQuest and Science Direct. A number of 21 studies were evaluated and analyzed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria for data extraction.

The challenges related to the formation of professional identity in nursing, in 4 categories: challenges related to nursing students, challenges related to the educational system, challenges related to nurses and challenges related to the environment and Social culture can be classified.

Challenges related to the formation of professional identity in nursing include challenges related to nursing students, educational system, nurses, environment and social culture. It is suggested that nursing managers and trainers in the clinical areas of nursing act as a perfect model for future nursing students, nursing programs should aim to reduce the gap between theoretical and clinical education. It is also suggested that media members support the nursing profession and nurses' effort to show their professional capabilities in social media.