Mbalinda Scovia Nalugo, Najjuma Josephine Nambi, Gonzaga Aloysius Mubuuke, Livingstone Kamoga, Musoke David
Department of Nursing, School of Medicine, College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, PO Box 7072, Uganda.
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda.
BMC Nurs. 2024 Mar 1;23(1):146. doi: 10.1186/s12912-024-01795-2.
In the changing healthcare landscape, a strong professional identity serves as a cornerstone for nurses. Therefore, transformative educational approaches that include professional judgement, reasoning, critical self-evaluation and a sense of accountability are required to foster professional identity. We explored the understanding and barriers to professional identity formation among recent graduates and students of midwifery and nursing in Uganda.
A descriptive qualitative research design employing focus groups was used to collect data from student nurses and midwives from Makerere University, Mbarara University, and recent graduates in nursing and midwifery programs attending their internship training at Mulago National and Mbarara Regional Referral hospitals. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.
A total of 33 students and 26 recent graduates participated in the study. The participants who reported understanding Professional identity in nursing and midwifery mentioned that these are principles, characteristics and values, competencies, ethics and code of conduct, sense of belonging and professionalism that define the nursing profession and practice. Barriers to the formation of professional identity were provided under two themes: education and health service delivery. The education theme included subthemes like nursing educators not working in clinical settings and inadequate clinical mentoring. Under the health service delivery theme, subthemes emerged included high workload, lack of interprofessional collaboration, many levels of nursing and midwifery practice, no clear scope of practice for different levels of nursing and midwifery practice, Low esteem among nurses and midwives, media and lack of policy implementation.
Participants were knowledgeable about professional identity in nursing/midwifery. They faced several challenges and barriers in professional identity formation during their training and internship. We recommend a need to streamline the scope of practice and enhance clinical mentorship and engagement of leadership in nursing in developing professional identity among students.
在不断变化的医疗环境中，强烈的职业认同感是护士的基石。因此，需要采用包括专业判断、推理、批判性自我评估和责任感在内的变革性教育方法来培养职业认同感。我们探讨了乌干达助产士和护士专业的应届毕业生和学生对职业认同感形成的理解及障碍。
采用描述性定性研究设计，通过焦点小组从 Makerere 大学、Mbarara 大学的学生护士和助产士以及在穆拉戈国家转诊医院和 Mbarara 地区转诊医院参加实习培训的护理和助产专业应届毕业生中收集数据。采用主题分析法对数据进行分析。
共有 33 名学生和 26 名应届毕业生参与了研究。报告理解护理和助产职业认同感的参与者提到，这些是定义护理职业和实践的原则、特征和价值观、能力、道德和行为准则、归属感和专业精神。职业认同感形成的障碍分为两个主题：教育和医疗服务提供。教育主题包括护理教育工作者不在临床环境工作以及临床指导不足等子主题。在医疗服务提供主题下，出现的子主题包括工作量大、缺乏跨专业协作、护理和助产实践层次多、不同护理和助产实践水平的实践范围不明确、护士和助产士自尊心低、媒体影响以及政策执行不力。
参与者对护理/助产职业认同感有一定了解。他们在培训和实习期间的职业认同感形成过程中面临着若干挑战和障碍。我们建议有必要简化实践范围，加强临床指导，并提高护理领域领导层在培养学生职业认同感方面的参与度。
