Becoming a nurse: A process of learning

Abstract

This thesis is about the process whereby a student becomes a nurse. This occurs at a professional level and a subjective level. The professional process is determined by others through which the individual learns the knowledge, skills, language, attitudes, values and behaviours. It occurs through a process of socialisation which commences as formal education and continues once the individual engages in practice. The subjective level is an internal process in which each individual sheds the student identity and embodies a new nurse identity. Initially, newly qualified nurses are thrown into disarray highlighting a disjuncture between what is known and what is not known, demonstrated through an inability to perfonn independently in practice. This process results in a disjuncture between the subjective (the lifeworld) and objective (out-there-world). It is at this point that individuals actively learn in an attempt to seek harmony between the two worlds. Through a variety of experiences and repeated routines, they deyelop the ability to perform, become significant team members and in so doing, acquire a new identity. Although both the professional and subjective processes are necessary for an identity to truly be embodied within the person, this thesis focuses upon the subjective process in the change of identity. The acquisition of the identity is traced through five separate interviews held over a twenty-two month period: initially at the end of the fonnal education programme, followed by interviews at three, six, twelve and eighteen months of practice. The findings of this study show that as individuals acquire a new identity, the ability to practise autonomously is influenced by varying degrees of personal and professional confidence. Yet this is complicated by the fluidity of the every changing world (both subjective and professional) which precipitates individuals into a constant state of flux. Therefore in attempting to be a nurse, they are forever in a process of becoming the nurse. Hence an identity is constantly being reinvented.