Relationships between professional identity, motivation, and innovative ability among nursing intern students: A cross-sectional study.

Objective: To explore the relationships among motivation, professional identity, and innovative ability of nursing intern students.

Background: Professional identity and innovative ability are important for nursing students' core competitiveness and care quality. During the internship, nursing students integrate theoretical knowledge and practice, and have a rapid growth. Motivation is positively associated with professional identity and innovative ability. However, there are limited studies examining the professional identity, motivation, and innovative ability of nursing intern students.

Design: A descriptive cross-sectional online study.

Methods: Students in the nursing schools in southwest and central of China were included in this study and conducted from June to July 2022. A total of 474 nursing intern students were recruited from 16 nursing schools. Research data were collected with "Participants' Demographics Form", "the Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nursing Students", "the Revised Life Goals Questionnaire", and "the Revised Multidimensional Innovative Questionnaire". Independent-sample t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, correlation coefficients, and structural equation modeling were used in data analysis. This study adhered to the STROBE guidelines.

Results: A significantly positive correlation was determined among the professional identity (67.55 ± 8.42), motivation (53.38 ± 5.54), and innovative ability (47.99 ± 5.46) of nursing students ( > 0.4,  < 0.001). Motivation had a mediating effect on professional identity and innovative ability ( = 0.003), accounting for 10.9% (0.075/0.689) of the total effect.

Conclusions: There was a positive correlation among professional identity, motivation, and innovative ability. Developing motivation and professional identity can enhance nursing intern students' ability to innovate.