Strengthening Student Nurses’ Sense of Belonging Through Attendance at a Professional Nursing Conference

Abstract

Nursing faculty members at one midwestern college provided a professional development opportunity for baccalaureate nursing students by organizing a trip to a nursing association conference (ie, the AORN Global Surgical Conference & Expo). Preconference and postconference survey results showed a statistically significant increase in sense‐of‐belonging scores; and the eta‐squared statistic (0.14) indicated a large effect size, suggesting the students’ conference attendance enhanced their sense of belonging to the profession. A Pearson's correlation analysis revealed a strong, positive correlation between a student's intention to join a professional organization and his or her belief that membership in a professional organization was important (r = 0.82, n = 26, P < .001). This type of professional experience may improve students’ perception of nursing professionalism, sense of belonging, intention to join a professional organization, and confidence in nursing as a career.

Legacy of the Role of Medicine and Nursing in the Holocaust: An Educational Intervention to Support Nursing Student Professional Identity Formation and Ethical Conduct

“…Within this, emergent themes did align with PIF "pillars" of values/ethics, knowledge (including critical reflection), leadership, and professional comportment (Brewington & Godfrey, 2020), supporting this educational innovation. The value of educational experiences supporting PIF has been well documented, including improving students' perceptions of nursing professionalism, sense of belonging to the profession, and confidence in nursing as a career (Kruse et al, 2020). Rebalancing the art and science of nursing through incorporation of the medical or "health" humanities, including such critical history, can enhance reflective capacity and have a positive impact on the cognitive and affective aspects of learning (Wald et al, 2019) to support PIF and nurses' role as humanitarian (Kelsey, 2018).…”

Comparison of the effectiveness of the electronic portfolio and online discussion forum methods in teaching professional belonging and ethical behaviors to nursing students: a randomized controlled trial

“…Few studies have been performed on training professional belonging and ethical behaviors, which have shortcomings. Kruse et al (2020) conducted a study entitled “Strengthening Student Nurses’ Sense of Belonging through Attendance at a Professional Nursing Conference.” The results showed an increase in students' professional belonging by attending conferences [ 36 ]. Zakaria et al (2016) also found in their study that awareness of nursing ethics and ethical behaviors are strongly correlated with educational programs [ 37 ].…”

Psychometric Analysis of the Professional Identity Questionnaires in Croatian Nursing Student Context

“…It includes professional, educational, and social skills, attitudes, values, and beliefs which individuals share in interaction with other members of a certain group, and at the same time it differs them from other professional groups ( Maginnis, 2018 ). PI development begins with education and preparation of students for their future occupation ( Kruse et al, 2020 ; Maginnis, 2018 ; Tan et al, 2017 ). Therefore, the basis of PI of nursing students is education, through which the students get introduced to true values of nursing and the very meaning of belonging to their own profession ( Maginnis, 2018 ).…”