Has the COVID-19 pandemic affected nursing students’ career self-efficacy and professional calling? The mediating impact of professional identity

Abstract

Background Professional calling (PC) is crucial for ascertaining their professional goals and fulfilling career choices in nursing students. Thus, understanding its antecedents and helping schools improve PC among nursing students is critical. This study aims to explore whether professional identity (PI), as a crucial antecedent of PC, acts as an intermediary between career self-efficacy (CSE) and professional calling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods A sample of 565 nursing students were selected by a web-based survey through convenience sampling. The study was conducted from October to November 2020. Measures of CSE, PI, and PC were assessed during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed demographic data and the correlation of the research variables. The significance of the mediation effect was assessed using a bootstrap method with SPSS. Results CSE during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak (r = 0. 359, p < 0. 01) and PI (r = 0. 670, p < 0. 01) were both relevant to PC among nursing students. In addition, CSE had a positive indirect effect on PC through PI (β = 0. 288, p < 0. 05). Conclusions Higher scores in CSE and a better PI were associated with PC in nursing students. Furthermore, a better CSE had an indirect effect on the PC of students through PI. The favorable evidence in our study confirms that nursing educators can adopt PI interventions to improve the sense of PC among nursing students.

Professional calling among nursing students: a latent profile analysis

“…The results were similar to another Chinese research [ 26 ], which indicated that the average score of calling among nursing students was 41.17. The findings revealed that most students had positive views of the nursing profession, which were in line with findings from earlier research [ 17 , 27 ]. However, the low calling group accounting for 30.3% of the total participants, which revealed that nurses' calling was lower than that of other care professionals as a result of their subpar remuneration and working circumstances [ 28 ].…”

“…A longitudinal study found a significant positive correlation between calling and career preparation [ 16 ]. It has also been shown in other studies that there is a connection between calling, professional identity [ 17 ], and career commitment [ 18 ] among college students.…”

Association between calling and meaning in life among nursing students:the mediation effect of moral identity

“…This nding was in line with the ndings of previous literature. For example, [37] veri ed the mediating effect through a cross-sectional study which found the positively association between calling and moral identity. The ndings of the study add strong evidence that calling can be a signi cant stimulus for enhancing moral identity.…”

Effects of Self-Leadership on Nursing Professionalism among Nursing Students: The Mediating Effects of Positive Psychological Capital and Consciousness of Calling

“…The calling of nursing and nursing professionalism have been reported to be motivating and applied to clinical sites to care for patients with COVID-19 [ 24 ]. Further, nurses’ images were delivered to people through the media, affecting not only the public but also nursing students’ awareness and attitudes toward the satisfaction of nursing majors and nursing professionalism [ 25 ]. Previous studies have confirmed a significant correlation between nursing students’ consciousness of calling and nursing professionalism [ 20 ]; however, no studies have confirmed the mediating effect of consciousness of calling on the relationship between self-leadership and nursing professionalism.…”