The shaping of moral identity and practice

This paper reports findings from a three-year study exploring the self-esteem of students undertaking a Diploma in nursing course at a higher educational establishment in the United Kingdom. The sample represented all four branches of nursing and was purposively selected. The main methodology used, and that which is reported here was the grounded theory method, which identified influencing factors during the transition to becoming a nurse and explored their interpretations and constructions of their experiences. These data were collected by unstructured, qualitative, taped interviews. The findings presented in this paper imply that when students commence their training they have a moral awareness, which they perceive will guide their nursing actions. By the end of the course this moral awareness had been superseded by their willingness to conform to the nursing norms evident in the clinical area. This has implications for nursing practice.