Changes in professional commitment of undergraduate nurse students before and after internship: a longitudinal study

BACKGROUND: Experiencing internship shapes nursing students’ professional commitment and aggravates its changes. However, few studies have been investigated how this changes empirically. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study are to investigate (a) what are the changes of professional commitment of nursing students before and after the internship? (b) Which of multiple independent variables is the strongest predictor? METHODS: A longitudinal study was conducted with 996 senior undergraduate nursing students (ready to enter clinical practice) in the China universities. The survey was conducted in the spring of 2015 and autumn of 2016. The data were collected by a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The instruments used included Professional Commitment Scale and Perceived Stress Scale. Analysis of paired t-test and linear regression analysis were performed on the data. RESULTS: Nursing students showed lower professional commitment (2.79 ± 0.36) than they were (2.92 ± 0.36) before internship. Socio-demographic variables, pre-internship professional commitment and stress perceived during internship predicted 40.1% of the variance in the post-internship commitment. DISCUSSION: These data summarize the nursing students’ professional commitment changes and the main influential factors that contribute to post-internship professional commitment of undergraduate nursing student. The findings are timely, which indicate that senior nursing students’ professional commitment can be increased by enhancing pre-internship commitment and reducing students’ stress levels during internship.