Measuring the professional self‐concept of nurses: a critical review

Abstract

Nursing literature strongly suggests that the self-concept of nurses is an important concept for academics, administrators and clinicians to consider in the development of the profession. Many valuable research projects have added to the data base on the subject, yet there still remain some questions to be answered. This paper explores the notion of self-concept as it relates to the professional working in nursing. In particular, the paper examines nursing research relating to the professional self-concept of nursing, arguing that the 'professional' self-concept of nurses is unique and different from that of the self-concept (while inextricably linked); and that there is room for a new instrument which measures the dimensions of the professional self-concept of nurses. Suggestions for future research include replication and further validation and reliability studies of a new instrument; a cross-cultural study using samples from different countries; testing with various samples from different branches of nursing and further exploring the differences between self-concept and professional self-concept.

Impact of an educational program on nursing students’ caring and self-perception in intensive clinical training in Jordan

“…The Professional Self Concept Instrument (PSCNI) was developed by Arthur45,46 to study professional self-perception in a population of nursing students. The 16 items ask nurses to rate their degree of agreement on three scales examining nurses’ views toward their work.…”

Relación entre autoestima y felicidad desde la psicología positiva en estudiantes de enfermería intercultural

“…A pesar de su importancia, los estudiantes de enfermería generalmente tienen problemas de baja autoestima (Arthur, 1992;Arthur,1995), aunque en estudios recientes se han encontrado niveles normales en estudiantes de Reino Unido (Burnard, Hebden y Ewards, 2001), Tailandia (Sasat et al, 2001), Irlanda (Begley y Whithe, 2003), Perú (Gamarra, Rivera, Alcalde y Cabellos, 2010), Estados Unidos (Iacobucci, Daly, Lindell y Quinn, 2012) y México (Cruz, 2011;Cruz y Quiñones, 2012). No obstante, a pesar de la relevancia de fomentar el desarrollo de la felicidad con profesionales de Enfermería (Whelton, 2002;Malekiha y Reza, 2014;Ozkara, 2015), dentro de tal profesión no ha sido estudiada de manera profunda (Ozkara, 2015), y menos dentro del entorno intercultural.…”

Translation and validation of the Nurses Self-Concept Instrument for college-level nursing students in Taiwan

“…Three instruments for the nursing field have been developed, namely the Professional Self-Concept of Nurses Instrument (PSCNI; Arthur, 1992), the Nurses Self-Concept Questionnaire (NSCQ; Cowin, 2001), and the Nurses Self-Concept Instrument (NSCI; Angel et al, 2012). Table 1 summarizes these three scales and their dimensions.…”

“…Table 1 summarizes these three scales and their dimensions. First, the PSCNI was developed by Arthur (1992) and comprised 56 items with seven dimensions of flexibility/creativity, knowledge, skill/competence, caring, communication, leadership, and satisfaction. After the psychometrics were validated, 27 items from the PSCNI remained and were categorized into three factors of professional practice (i.e., flexibility/ creativity, skill/competence, and leadership), communication, and Nurse Education Today 36 (2016) 112-117 satisfaction (Arthur, 1995).…”