Strengthening Student Nurses' Sense of Belonging Through Attendance at a Professional Nursing Conference

Nursing faculty members at one midwestern college provided a professional development opportunity for baccalaureate nursing students by organizing a trip to a nursing association conference (ie, the AORN Global Surgical Conference & Expo). Preconference and postconference survey results showed a statistically significant increase in sense-of-belonging scores; and the eta-squared statistic (0.14) indicated a large effect size, suggesting the students' conference attendance enhanced their sense of belonging to the profession. A Pearson's correlation analysis revealed a strong, positive correlation between a student's intention to join a professional organization and his or her belief that membership in a professional organization was important (r = 0.82, n = 26, P < .001). This type of professional experience may improve students' perception of nursing professionalism, sense of belonging, intention to join a professional organization, and confidence in nursing as a career.