Experiences and perceptions of the development of professional identity among soon-to-graduate nursing students: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

Professional identity development is central to nursing education, yet the relationship between educational completion, professional capability, and identifying as a professional at graduation remains less clear. This qualitative study explored how 13 nursing students approaching graduation in Estonia understood professional nursing and made sense of their professional identity development. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in Estonia and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes concerned understanding the professional nurse; becoming a nurse through learning, practice, relationships, and life experience; and professional self-understanding at graduation. Professional identity was understood as integrating knowledge, relational sensitivity, responsibility, and reflection. Educational completion and situated professional capability did not always coincide with a stable sense of being a professional nurse. This tension was interpreted as transitional professional self-understanding, an interpretative refinement that highlights uneven alignment between perceived readiness, situated professional capability, and professional self-identification at the threshold of practice.