Professional identity, wellness, and future hope among nurse interns in Egypt

Objective Since nursing is a performance-based profession, clinical learning environments play an important role in the acquisition of professional abilities and train nursing students to enter the nursing profession and become a registered nurse. The study aimed to investigate the relations among professional identity, wellness, and future hope in nurse interns. Methods A cross-sectional, analytic, descriptive, correlational study design was used to test these relations in the study where 210 nurse interns’ students were selected using a convenience sampling from Zagazig University hospitals and Suez Canal University hospitals in Egypt. The questionnaires consisted of 4 parts, namely demographic characteristics, Professional Identity Scale for Nursing Students (PISNS), Holistic Health and Wellness Survey, and Hope scale. Results Less than half of the study sample had chosen nursing specialty by own will (43.8%), while slightly more than half of them had a “very good” graduation level, and had no nursing role model. The lowest mean professional identity score was for independence in career choice while the highest was for social modeling. The reported physical wellness mean-score was the least, while social wellness was the highest. Professional identity, wellness, and future hope scores differed significantly based on nurse interns’ personal characteristics. There were statistically significant, positive, weak-to-moderate correlations among the scores of professional identity, wellness, and future hope; however, the “choice of nursing study by own will” was a statistically significant independent positive predictor of the scores of professional identity, wellness, and future hope. Conclusions Nurse interns’ professional identity, wellness, and future hope were positively inter-correlated. However, nurse interns’ wellness was the lowest, and it should be fostered as it was the main predictor for future hope. The internship programs should be modulated to improve nurse interns’ professional identity, particularly regarding independence, and should foster their well-being in the clinical environment.