New educational profiles in the field of nursing affect professional socialization

Abstract

On the backdrop of changes in health systems in different countries, new vocational education programs and professional profiles have been developed in the field of nursing. These adaptions lead to changes in professional roles and therefore alter the circumstances of professional socialization. Based on theories of professional and organizational socialization, the impact of new profiles and programs in nursing on role clarity and professional satisfaction was investigated. In this context, we focus on graduates perspectives on these new programs and explore if they experience their professional roles as clear and if there is an interaction between role clarity and professional satisfaction. In a mixed methods approach, qualitative interviews (N=53) with young professionals and data form an online survey (N=671) one year after graduation with graduates of three educational levels in nursing in the German speaking part of Switzerland were analysed, using content analysis and linear regressions. Results show that graduates of the vocational training program for healthcare assistants and nurses with a Bachelor degree experience less role clarity and a lesser match between learned skills and requirements at the job than nurses graduating from colleagues of professional education. In the regression models, unclear roles and a limited use of skills have a negative impact on professional satisfaction. These findings support expectations based on theories of professional and organizational socialization where role clarity as well as the match between job and person can be understood as proximal indicators for socialization and satisfaction as a distal indicator of socialization. Therefore, the process of professional socialization should also be considered while establishing new educational programs and new professional profiles