Healthy Lifestyle and Professional Identity in Nursing Students: A Scoping Review of Their Interrelationships

Background: Professional identity (PI) formation is a central developmental process associated with students' well-being and ability to cope with professional demands. Healthy lifestyle (HL) and self-care are recognised as resources for sustaining long-term professional engagement. Although both PI formation and HL are considered important in nursing education, their interrelationship remains insufficiently understood. Objective: This review aimed to map and synthesise the existing literature on nursing students' PI formation and its relationship with HL. Methods: A scoping review was conducted following the Arksey and O'Malley framework, Joanna Briggs Institute guidance, and PRISMA-ScR reporting standards. A systematic search was performed in Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, and PubMed for peer-reviewed studies published 2015-2025. Results: Twelve sources met the inclusion criteria. The relationship between PI and HL is complex, indirect, and not yet clearly conceptualised. Rather than being defined through direct behavioural pathways, it appears to be mediated through mental well-being and related psychosocial aspects, as well as contextual influences. Tensions were identified between expectations of nurses as health role models and students' lived behaviours. A well-developed PI may function as a protective resource against maladaptive coping and support-adaptive responses to academic and clinical stress. Conclusions: Both PI and HL are predominantly conceptualised as dynamic and contextually embedded processes. More integrative approaches addressing both behavioural and psychosocial dimensions are needed. Future research should adopt conceptually coherent and methodologically balanced designs across diverse educational contexts.