A Narrative Approach to Understanding the Experience of Becoming and Being a Nurse: Professional Identity Formation Among New Nurses

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Authors

Halverson, Kathryn

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thesis

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eng

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Narrative , Transition to Practice , Graduate Nurses , Professional Identity , Becoming

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Abstract

Research into how nurses form their professional identity is crucial to the development of the nursing profession as well as to understanding the factors that contribute to transition to practice and retention of new nurses. The purpose of this research was to explore the stories nurses tell to describe experiences of professional identity formation and transition to practice. Narrative methodology was used to understand transition to practice for newly graduated nurses and their experience of professional identity formation. This dissertation begins with an autobiographical reflection of my own journey of becoming and being a nurse. The research study includes the stories of five nurses who shared their unique experiences of becoming and being nurses. Participants were interviewed twice, and data was analysed using a three-dimensional narrative inquiry space of time, sociality, and place. Each story was organized by plotlines of beginning, becoming, and being nurses. Resonating narrative threads emerged and are presented as understandings across the five narrative accounts. In addition to the interpretations of each individual’s story of beginning, becoming, and being a nurse, threads that resonated across the stories include entering into the world of nursing, the journey to become a nurse, learning alongside others, and embodying nursing. The findings of this inquiry offer a new context for understanding professional identity formation and transition to practice in a way that preserves, values, and respects the voices and stories of the nurses themselves, while offering insight for nursing education, practice, and research.

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