[Perception of professional identity in nursing amongst undergraduate students]

To identify the perception of the nursing professional identity between first and fourth grade students.

A descriptive study using a questionnaire. A random sample of 50 and 51 students were selected from the first and fourth grade, respectively. The questionnaire was prepared by expert consensus, and it included a sociodemographic data register, 14 items, and two open questions. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were performed on the data, using the Chi-squared test to determine the possible differences between both grades. SPSS 22.0 statistics software was employed. The open questions were submitted to a content analysis.

Statistically significant differences were found between the items related to the diversity of roles that the nursing professionals can develop within the health care system (professional and academic), and between the autonomous nature of their practices. These data were confirmed by the information obtained with the open questions.

Academic training is of great importance in the process of acquiring the professional identity of future professionals in nursing, but changing the public image of the profession is the responsibility of all the social agents involved in its development.