The potential influences of professional identity for undergraduate nursing students during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

AIM: We aimed to investigate the level of undergraduate nursing students' professional identity (PI) during the COVID-19 pandemic and its potential influences. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 742 undergraduate nursing students from Chengdu Medical College. Basic demographics, personal characteristics and PI score were collected. Chi-squared test, one-way analysis of variance, and multivariable logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: In the classes of 2019, 2020, and 2021, the PI score was 96.85 ± 18.26, 105.37 ± 17.46, 106.67 ± 22.08 (P < .001). PI score was the independent predictive factor for both "want to be a nurse" and "willingness to serve during COVID-19 or other pandemics". CONCLUSIONS: PI contributes greatly to nursing students' willingness to be a nurse and overcome pandemics. The challenge of culturing PI during COVID-19 pandemic revealed the necessity of developing individual management strategies for nursing education.

A preconception care program for women in a college setting.

Preconception healthcare is a way to enhance positive pregnancy outcomes by encouraging women to engage in healthy lifestyles before they become pregnant. Because approximately 50% of pregnancies are unplanned, fetal development may be affected before a woman receives prenatal care. Young women are especially vulnerable to poor outcomes due to risky behaviors. Education about preconception health is not common practice. This article describes a peer education preconception health program for college women that provided a basis for an expanded program with larger, more diverse populations. Nursing students as peer educators presented the program to over 100 young women using the mnemonic REFRAMED PLUS to address eight preconception risk areas and reproductive life planning. Materials to augment the program, developed by peer educators, included a brochure on preconception health, a risk assessment tool, a DVD with stories of young women who experienced unplanned pregnancies, and a Reproductive Life Plan book. Peer educators administered a pretest, showed the DVD, guided discussions, assessed each woman's health risks and administered a posttest. The risk assessment revealed that young women have several preconception health risks. Following the preconception program, posttest scores indicated increased knowledge of preconception health. For preconception healthcare to be successful, preconception risk assessments, education and counseling must be addressed by nurses every time a young woman receives care. When possible, peer educators should be used to disseminate the message to all women of childbearing age.

Nursing students' perceptions of instructor caring: an instrument based on Watson's Theory of Transpersonal Caring.

This study describes the development and testing of an instrument to measure nursing students' perceptions of instructor caring. Originally, 69 statements about instructors' caring behaviors, based on Watson's 10 carative factors, were created with Dr. Jean Watson. The Nursing Students' Perceptions of Instructor Caring (NSPIC) instrument uses a 6-point Likert scale for students' responses to the statements. After pretesting the instrument with a small group of nursing students, the NSPIC was tested with 133 baccalaureate nursing students. Based on item analysis, factor analysis, and student comments, the number of statements were reduced to 31. Psychometric testing revealed that the NSPIC is internally consistent (alpha = 0.97) and contains five subscales. Convergent validity was established between the NSPIC and a semantic differential scale of students' perceptions of instructor caring. Predictive validity was assessed with Coates Caring Efficacy Scale. Although the NSPIC is in its early stages of development, its psychometric properties indicate that it is a valid and reliable measure of nursing students' perceptions of instructor caring.

A model of the attitudinal component of professional nurse autonomy.

This model-testing correlational study was designed to predict a causal model of the attitudinal component of professional nurse autonomy in female baccalaureate nursing students by testing three carative factors embedded in Watson's Theory of Transpersonal Caring. Proportional quota and convenience sampling were used to collect data from 317 senior nursing students enrolled in 20 National League for Nursing-accredited baccalaureate nursing programs. Path analysis revealed that the hypothesized model was not testable. With removal of nonsignificant paths, 19.1% of the variance in perceived clinical competence was explained by self-esteem and perceptions of instructor caring behaviors. Perceptions of instructor caring behaviors, self-esteem, and perceived clinical competence contributed 11.1% to the variance in the attitudinal component of professional nurse autonomy. These findings provide a baseline for understanding the attitudinal component of professional nurse autonomy. A large percentage of the variance in the model was unexplained, suggesting the need for further study of other contributing variables.