What does it mean to be a nurse? That question is front and center in a national discussion on the professional identity of nursing, and the University of Kansas School of Nursing is helping to lead that conversation. Nelda Godfrey, Ph.D., RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, associate dean of innovative partnerships and practice at the KU School of Nursing, has been exploring what it means to be a nurse for much of her career, teaching professional identity courses at the KU School of Nursing and researching the concept of professional identity formation. We sat down to talk to Godfrey about the importance of defining what nursing is.

WHY EXPLORE PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY FOR THE NURSING PROFESSION?

It’s something that has been discussed pretty much since Florence Nightingale’s time. She understood from the beginning that nurses needed to be more than those who perform tasks ― they also needed to contemplate what it means to be a nurse. The challenge is that nurses spend the majority of their time DOING rather than BEING.

They have tended to be invisible and silent, but that is changing.

HAS NURSING BEEN BEHIND THE CURVE WHEN IT COMES TO EXPLORING AND DEFINING PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY?

Definitely. If you ask a physician or a minister what it means to work in one’s profession, they most likely will have a strong opinion. Nursing has been an academic field for quite a while, but we haven’t spent as much time exploring identity like many other fields.

But now nursing education has evolved from training classes based primarily in hospitals to a full-fledged bachelor’s degree, master’s degrees and multiple doctorates. It’s time to have these discussions.

WAS THERE A PARTICULAR CATALYST THAT GOT YOU INTERESTED IN THIS ISSUE?

I have a broad academic background in liberal arts, so I have spent many hours discussing philosophical issues with college students from all majors. I‘m very passionate about helping the nursing profession develop a philosophy and language to clearly communicate what we do. I have long felt that if nurses focus solely on the tasks they are assigned and their patient outcomes, we are missing the broader picture of nurses and their contributions to their health care teams and to society at large.

HOW ARE YOU GOING ABOUT GATHERING INFORMATION ABOUT PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY?

In 2019, we invited more than 50 nurse leaders and nurse educators from all over the United States and Canada to Kansas City to discuss professional identity in nursing. This group of leaders has essentially become the think tank to advance concepts and ideas that will lift professional identity into conversations and ultimately, into nursing curricula, across the nation. In 2020, we hosted an international virtual forum on professional identity in nursing, again with more than participants and an active work agenda to advance professional identity in nursing.

IS IT A CHALLENGE GETTING A CONSENSUS AROUND SUCH A COMPLICATED ISSUE?

It is very tough. When you ask 50 leaders from nursing organizations across the United States and Canada what professional identity for nurses should be, you will most likely get 50 different answers.

But we are starting to come up with a shared terminology and building the new knowledge and language that we can take forward.

IT WOULD ALSO SEEM THAT PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY FOR NURSING COULD BE HARD TO DEFINE BECAUSE NURSING IS SUCH A BROAD AND DIVERSE FIELD.

Without question. There are more than 100 different nursing specialties and trying to find what’s common among all of them is a challenge. The good thing is that nurses in all of these various specialties are interested in exploring their professional identity.

The three specific areas we are looking at are regulation, education and practice, which all nurses have in common. And we also consider the four pillars of nursing professional identity ― values and ethics, knowledge, leadership and comportment ― to guide our discussions.

WHAT ARE YOU HOPING TO DO WITH ALL THE DATA YOU GATHER?

We are currently in the process of building a language and terminology around professional identity for nursing. And as we do that, our task force is working on building awareness about our efforts and encouraging nurses to think more deeply about what they do. I am also interested in taking the data we have gathered and using it to push for a professional identity component in nursing education curricula across the country.

YOU RECEIVED A $5,000 INNOVATION GRANT TO HELP WITH A PILOT PROJECT IN HOSPITALS IN KANSAS. CAN YOU EXPLAIN THAT PROJECT?

We’re very excited about it. It’s a demonstration project at up to 15 schools of nursing and hospitals in Kansas to present our ideas around professional identity to nurses, but also listening and recording what they think about the process. We hope to eventually expand the project to Missouri and nationally at some point.

I WOULD ASSUME THAT EDUCATING THE PUBLIC ABOUT WHO NURSES ARE AND WHAT THEY DO IS PART OF THE PROCESS?

Absolutely. Public perception of the nursing profession is critical.

Once we figure come up with a consensus on professional identity, we need to communicate that to not just our nurses, but also to patients and the public.

WHAT IS YOUR DREAM END RESULT FOR ALL YOUR WORK AROUND PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY?

I would love for every health care institution in the country to create the space for its nursing staff to discuss what professional identity means, both generally and specifically for their organization. And I hope that the key components of professional identity will be used in evaluation, recognition and communication about how one thinks, acts and feels as a professional nurse.