Factors Influencing the Professional Self- Concept among Nursing Students

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the factors influencing nursing students' professional self-concept. Methods: This study was conducted through a survey on 365 nursing students. The data were collected by self-reporting questionnaires and analysed by the SPSS WIN 17.0 program using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise multiple regression. Results: The mean score of professional self-concept was 2.83. Professional self-concept showed that there were differences according to grade, satisfaction on college life, motivation on choice of nursing, satisfaction on nursing, school work credit, interpersonal relationship, health status. There was a significant positive correlation between professional self-concept and between satisfaction with clinical practice. Significant positive correlations between professional self-concept and self-esteem, satisfaction with clinical practice and self-esteem were found. The significant factors influencing professional self-concept were self-esteem, satisfaction on clinical practice, satisfaction on nursing, interpersonal relationship, which explained 45.1% of the variance. Conclusion: This study suggests that a strategy increasing self-esteem is needed to enhance nursing students' professional self-concept.