Development of the perception of professional identity in nursing scale: A quantitative study

This study aimed to develop a measure, called the Professional Identity Perception in Nursing Scale and evaluate its psychometric properties.

Professional identity in nursing, defined as the alignment of one's thoughts, actions and emotions with the values and norms of the profession, plays a critical role in empowering nurses, improving patient outcomes and advancing the nursing field.

This study used a quantitative cross-sectional design.

The population of the study consisted of nurses working at a hospital in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. The item pool for the scale was developed through a literature review and qualitative data analysis, resulting in 26 items, which were then presented to 10 experts for evaluation. After content validity was established, a draft scale comprising 24 items was used as the data collection tool. Data were collected through an online survey created via Google Forms, with the participation of 262 nurses between December 2023 and June 2024.

The 24-item scale with three sub-dimensions showed good fit indices: CMIN/DF= 3.559, GFI= 0.778, CFI= 0.905, RMSEA= 0.099, TLI= 0.893, IFI= 0.906 and SRMR= 0.071. All item path coefficients were significant (p < 0.001). Cronbach's alpha values were 0.965 (beliefs, values, norms), 0.904 (identity-based motivation) and 0.889 (symbolic interactionism).

The Professional Identity Perception in Nursing Scale is a valid, reliable and 24-item tool with three sub-dimensions to assess nurses' professional identity.