Professional Socialization Models in Nursing

The ultimate goal of nursing education is to teach a student to think and act like a nurse, to see the health care industry through the lens of nursing and to respond to the effects of both educational and clinical experiences by developing professionalism. This process of internalization and development of an occupational identity is known as ‘professional socialization’. It begins during student period and continues as they practice in the ‘real world’. How does a student make the transition from a novice struggling to understand what is going on, to a person who thinks and feels like a nurse? Many nurse scholars and leaders in the past had explored and analyzed this concept and developed conceptual models to explain professional socialization of nursing students. This article is a review of the various conceptual models on professional socialization, published in nursing literature.