Professional Identity Development in Nursing Students: Eisner’s Evaluation Model

Introduction Professional identity development is one of the fundamental concerns of nursing education.1 It has become one of the most important challenges in nursing education and providing nursing services due to the attempts to prepare nurses for professional roles in a changing healthcare environ ment.2 The university and students are at the core of scientific and practical elements of professional development. Although nursing schools have increasingly grown, these have not improved.3 Recent studies indicate the insufficiency of nursing educational systems, especially in terms of professional identity development among nurses.1,3,4 Professional identity development is a difficult process, because it consists of several factors such as: body of knowledge, professional authority, community sanction, code of ethics, social culture, gender, work experience, teamwork skills, professional knowledge, learning a workplace, and interaction and background awareness of the profession.5 A study demonstrated that a necessary part of a nurse’s professional identity forms during the education and studentship period. If it has been integrated into first years of a person’s career, its effects will last until the end of professional activity.6 As one of the main objectives of nursing education is creating a professional identity whose members could be successful and independent based on their own know-ledge, attitude and abilities, an educational system evaluation is valuable in terms of identifying effective components of professional identity and describing them to nursing students. Building up a positive professional identity is crucial in attracting and retaining quality nurses; it also helps students confirm their career choice early in their program.7 It emphasizes the ethical nature of the professional culture that ultimately leads to quality future practice.8 Holding a positive nursing image helps sustain motivation and retention in the nursing program.9 Professional identity is foundational to the assumption of various nursing roles. Also, a profes sional identity with an inherent ethical virtue contributes much to quality nursing practice.10 Although there are several studies in this field, none of them studied the role of nursing curriculum components on professional identity. Besides, the majority of studies are conducted in western societies that differ in terms of Res Dev Med Educ, 2014, 3(1), 37-43