Professional role identity in shaping community nurses' reactions to nursing policy

To establish the extent to which professional role identity shapes community nurses' reactions before the implementation of a policy that sought to introduce a generic role.

Many countries seek to alter community nurse roles to address changes in population health and health workforce. We know little about the influences that might shape nurses' reaction to these policies before their implementation and our theoretical understanding is poorly developed at this point in the policy-making cycle.

Self completed cross-sectional survey of 703 community nurses before the introduction of a generic Community Health Nurse role in Scotland.

The minority (33%) supported the new role. The professional role identity of those who were supportive differed significantly from those who did not support the policy or were uncertain of it.

It is possible that the new policy acted to increase the value of the professional role identity of those who were supportive and conversely devalued the professional role identity of those who were unsupportive or uncertain of it.

Professional role identity should be considered by policy makers in any country seeking to introduce policies that aim to radically change the role of community nurses and that this is acknowledged at an early stage in the policy-making cycle.