forum . Before I joined the NSNA group , I knew little of the impact the NSNA had with resources on the professional nurse and what professional identity actually meant . I was familiar with the term , professional nursing , as I had taught the course to undergraduate students for a couple of semesters . In the course , we used the terms professional nursing and professional identity interchangeably . becomes a subset of one ’ s personal identity as a whole . Thanks to Dr . Nelda Godfrey , who has been the Chair of the International Society for Professional Identity in Nursing since 2018 , and her Think Tank team , the concept of identity formation and its tendency to be learner focused means that the registered nurse is always learning and has a sense of well-being .
I now recognize that professional identity in nursing is defined as “ a sense of oneself , and in relationship with others , that is influenced by characteristics , norms , and values of the nursing discipline , resulting in an individual thinking , acting , and feeling like a nurse ” ( Godfrey & Crigger , 2017 ). The four domains of professional identity are : values , knowledge , leadership , and professional comportment ( Godfrey et al ., 2017 ).
It has become evident to me that professional identity has an impact on a nurse ’ s career . It does not take away from one ’ s personal identity , but it paves the way for nurses to act , think , and behave like professionals . As a group , we wanted to determine how students would operationalize the four pillars of professional identity : values and ethics , knowledge , leadership , and professional comportment .
Our personal and professional identities become aligned ; professional identity
It has become evident to me that professional identity has an impact on a nurse ’ s career . It does not take away from one ’ s personal identity , but it paves the way for nurses to act , think , and behave like professionals .
I was honored to take part in faculty forums in NSNA to speak about professional identity and , more recently in February 2022 , I took part in a panel about the role of health and wellness coaching . I probably would not have pursued nurse coaching had it not been for COVID . I found an absence in cultivating social relationships . I wanted to explore further and connect with clients who felt the need to make improvements in their life . This pursuit also inspired the passion to explore a better sense of myself and focus on self-care , which has been highlighted as one of the new domains in the American Association of the Colleges of Nursing Essentials ( American Association of Colleges of Nursing , 2020 ). I saw this as an opportunity to reach new horizons and network with other people who are also in health and wellness coaching . Granted , it was nursing school that taught me how to communicate with patients , however , only when I started taking the formal course with health and wellness
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