Association between professional identity, positive mental character and humanistic caring ability in Chinese clinical nursing students (Preprint)

Abstract

Humanistic caring ability is one of the core abilities that nurses need to possess. There are few studies on the influential factors that impact humanistic caring ability in clinical nursing students, and on the association between professional identity, positive mental character and humanistic caring ability.

This study aims to determine the association between professional identity, positive mental character and humanistic caring ability in Chinese clinical nursing students.

The study was a cross-sectional survey. Of 981 clinical nursing students were recruited from hospitals in Changsha, Hunan, China. Self-administered questionnaires were completed, including Humanistic Caring Ability of Nursing Undergraduates Assessment Scale(HCANU), Professional Identity Scale for Nurse Students(PIQNS) and Positive Mental Characters Scale for Chinese College Students(PMCS-CCS). In this study, the level of nursing students’ humanistic caring ability was identified. Pearson correlation analysis was carried out to identify the association between professional identity, positive mental characters and humanistic caring ability for nursing students. Liner regression analysis was performed with humanistic caring ability as the outcome variable in order to confirm factors associated with humanistic caring ability.

A total of 981 clinical nursing students was recruited. The mean scores of nursing students’ humanistic caring ability, professional identity and positive mental character were 125.94±21.19, 62.32±11.23, 233.18±38.59, respectively. The Pearson correlation results showed that professional identity (r = 0.578, P < 0.001) and positive mental character (r = 0.655, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with humanistic caring ability. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that education (β = -0.161, P=0.009), three dimensions of professional self-image (β = 0.271, P=0.028), career choice independence (β = 0.228, P<0.001), and social comparison and self-reflection (β = -0.102, P=0.018) in their professional identity as well as three dimensions of courage (β = 0.269, P=0.024), humanity (β = 0.303, P=0.001 ), justice (β = 0.0.253, P=0.004 ) and transcendence (β= 0.004, P=0.036) in positive mental character were found to be independent predictors of humanistic caring ability.

This study indicates a significant association between professional identity, positive mental character and humanistic caring ability in clinical nursing students. These results suggest that professional identity and positive mental character are important considerations in the development, implementation and evaluation of humanistic caring ability interventions.