[Factors affecting nursing students' professional self-concept in Iran: a qualitative study]

Professional self-concept is a contextualized multidimensional concept that describes the subjective experiences and feelings of nurses with regard to nursing roles. Professional self-concept starts to develop during the academic years. Yet, there is still limited understanding about the factors affecting nursing students' professional self-concept, which is a potential problem. Poor professional self-concept negatively affects nurses' clinical practice, job satisfaction, and retention in the profession.

This study aimed to explore factors affecting Iranian nursing students' professional self- concept from the perspectives of nursing students, nursing instructors, and hospital nurses.

This exploratory qualitative study was carried out from June 2018 to April 2019. Participants were four hospital nurses, three clinical nursing instructors, and four nursing stu- dents who were purposively selected from the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran. Data were gathered via in-depth semi-structured interviews and were analyzed via con- ventional content analysis proposed by Graneheim and Lundman.

In total, 610 primary codes were generated and grouped into eleven subthemes and five main themes. The main themes of the study were professional instructors, competent nur- ses, informed choice of nursing profession, difficulties of nursing profession, and congruence between students' personal-professional values and nursing profession.

Professional self-concept is affected by different personal, educational, envi- ronmental, and social factors. Nursing instructors, hospital managers, and nurse managers can use the findings of this study to support nursing students, promote their professional self-con- cept, and ensure their retention in the profession.