Professional values among nursing interns: a latent profile analysis and network analysis study

Professional values constitute the ethical cornerstone of nursing practice. However, existing variable-centered research predominantly focuses on aggregate scores, thereby neglecting individual heterogeneity and distinct patterns among nursing interns. To address this gap, this study aimed to identify distinct subtypes of professional values and elucidate their underlying patterns among nursing interns by integrating Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) and Network Analysis. Ultimately, this study provides valuable insights into the heterogeneity of nursing professional values and offers a potential basis for developing personalized educational strategies and optimizing clinical education practices. A cross-sectional study design was employed. This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2025 to November 2025. Nursing interns in the middle phase of their clinical practicum were recruited using a convenience sampling method from four tertiary general hospitals located in Hubei, Hunan, and Shandong provinces, representing central and eastern China. Data were collected using validated instruments, including the Nurses’ Moral Courage Scale, the Nursing Professional Values Scale, Professional Commitment Scale and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Subsequently, LPA was employed to identify heterogeneous subgroups of professional values among the nursing interns, followed by network analysis to explore the complex relational structure and interactions among the study variables. A total of 1,337 predominantly female nursing interns participated. Latent profile analysis identified four distinct nursing professional values profiles: Low (16.2%), Mid-Low (53.0%), Mid-High (20.7%), and High (10.1%). Network analysis revealed profile-specific centrality patterns based on standardized expected influence (EI). Specifically, age exhibited the highest standardized EI in both the Low (EI = 1.929) and Mid-High (EI = 1.969) profiles, whereas education level exhibited the highest standardized EI in both the Mid-Low (EI = 1.997) and High (EI = 1.533) profiles. Nursing interns’ professional values exhibited four distinct latent profiles. Network analysis further revealed profile-specific patterns of standardized expected influence (EI), with age and educational level showing the highest standardized EI within their respective subgroup networks. However, given the limited stability of some centrality estimates, particularly those with CS coefficients below 0.25, these findings should be interpreted as exploratory and should not be considered definitive evidence of node importance. The identified variables may represent potentially meaningful correlates within specific profile networks and may inform future hypothesis-driven research on nursing professional values and educational practices. Not applicable.