SynthesisBMC medical education2026
Factors associated with professional identity of nursing interns in China: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in BMC medical education, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Relationship Between Transition Shock and Nursing Informatics Competency in Nursing Interns: A Moderated Mediation Model of Psychological Empowerment and Teaching Hospital Grade.Journal of nursing management · 2026Article
- Predicting Professional Identity Among Chinese Nurses Using the Job Demands-Resources Model: A Comparative Machine-Learning Study.Journal of nursing management · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThis study aimed to identify factors associated with professional identity among nursing interns in China. Such evidence may help inform educational and clinical mentoring strategies to cultivate and strengthen professional identity during clinical internship, and may contribute to future retention among nursing interns, thereby supporting nursing workforce stability and improving the quality of nursing care.
methodsCNKI, Wanfang, VIP, the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL and the Cochrane Library were searched from database inception to 20 January 2026. Cross-sectional studies involving nursing interns in China and reporting professional identity and its associated factors were included. Methodological quality was assessed using the quality assessment criteria for cross-sectional studies recommended by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4, with the correlation coefficient r used as the effect size.
resultsA total of 48 studies were included, comprising 41 Chinese-language and seven English-language publications. Overall, 42 factors associated with professional identity were identified; 12 were included in the meta-analysis and 30 were synthesised descriptively. The meta-analysis showed that humanistic caring ability (r = 0.77, 95% CI: 0.48-0.91), medical narrative competence (r = 0.64, 95% CI: 0.60-0.69), professional self-efficacy (r = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.49-0.72), perceived professional benefit (r = 0.62, 95% CI: 0.57-0.66), clinical learning environment (r = 0.53, 95% CI: 0.18-0.77), psychological resilience (r = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.39-0.62), social support (r = 0.52, 95% CI: 0.34-0.66), perception of hospital caring climate (r = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.31-0.57), and perceived teacher caring (r = 0.36, 95% CI: 0.22-0.50) were positively associated with professional identity. Role stress (r = -0.32, 95% CI: -0.38 to -0.25) and anxiety (r = -0.14, 95% CI: -0.19 to -0.10) were negatively associated with professional identity. The association between clinical practice behaviour and professional identity was not statistically significant (r = 0.41, 95% CI: -0.03 to 0.73).
conclusionThis study showed that professional identity among nursing interns in China was associated with multiple factors. Humanistic caring ability, clinical learning environment, psychological resilience, professional self-efficacy, perceived teacher caring, hospital caring climate, medical narrative competence, perceived professional benefit and social support were associated with higher professional identity, whereas role stress and anxiety were associated with lower professional identity. The association between clinical practice behaviour and professional identity remained inconclusive. Nursing colleges and internship hospitals should support the development of professional identity among nursing interns by optimising the clinical learning environment, strengthening clinical mentoring support, enhancing psychological resources and reducing negative emotional experiences.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.