s u m m a r y a r t i c l e i n f o Background: The problem of nurses' professional identity continues to be seen in the disjunction between theoretical training and clinical placements. Moreover, it is not known how nursing students perceive these contradictions or how this discrepancy influences the construction of professional identity. Objective: To gain insight into nursing students' perception of their theoretical and practical training and how this training influences the process of constructing their professional identity. Design: Qualitative, ethnographic study. Participants/Settings: Third-year nursing students at the l'Escola Universitària d'Infermeria Vall d'Hebron de Barcelona. Methods: Participant observation was conducted in the hospital setting and primary care. Discussion groups were held. The constant comparative method was used for the analysis. The study adhered to the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Results: Students believed that both theoretical and practical trainings were indispensable. Nevertheless, clinical placements were considered essential to confer sense to the theory and to shape their identity, as they helped student nurses to experience their future professional reality and to compare it with what they had been taught in theoretical and academic classes. The role of the clinical placement mentor was essential. With regard to theory, the skills developed in problem-based learning gave novice nurses' confidence to approach the problems of daily practice and new situations. Equally, this approach taught them to reflect on what they did and what they were taught and this ability was transferred to the clinical setting. Conclusions: For students, both strategies (theory and practice) are vital to nursing education and the construction of a professional identity, although pride of place is given to clinical placements and mentors. The skills developed with problem-based learning favor active and reflective learning and are transferred to learning in the clinical setting.

Aim To understand how nursing students at the end of their nursing education view nursing care. Background Although care is understood as the essence of nursing, it is often difficult for nurses to provide care, which demonstrates a contradiction between theory and practice. Moreover, it is unknown to what extent this contradiction is transmitted to future nursing professionals or how they view nursing care and its practice. Design Qualitative ethnographic research. Methods The fieldwork was conducted between December 2010 ‐ May 2012 in a university nursing school in Barcelona and two centres where students carry out most of their practical education. The data collection techniques were participant observation and focus groups. A thematic analysis was used. Results The students demonstrated contradictory views of nursing care. On one hand, they voiced a more theoretical, official definition where care is considered the core of the profession. On the other hand, they also expressed a view where the provision of care is not nurses’ principal daily activity, a fact that did not surprise them. Students interpreted caring as an activity that has low value and that can be transferred unproblematically to other professionals. Conclusion The contradictory views of care reveal a problem in the transmission of the definition of nursing to new generations of professionals and reflect a problematic professional reality where there is dissonance between how nursing is defined and how it is carried out in practice.

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