| Degree completion nursing students bring professional maturity, clinical expertise, and practitioner experience to the education setting and are searching for ways to understand and deal with the complexity of their practice and the complex adaptive systems of health care. Through a qualitative phenomenological research design based on human science inquiry, the ways in which registered nurses (RNs) experience professional transformation in Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree completion education programs informed by complexity science were explored. Eleven study participants were interviewed using open-ended questions and semistructured dialogue. Six thematic structures emerged from the interview data: professional self, professional relationships, professional leadership, professional transformation, professional role, and broadened professional horizons. Experiences and attitudes related to professional transformation were evident in the data and program elements perceived to facilitate professional transformation in students were identified from the interviews. Professional nurses who understand complexity and its relevance to health care systems and the care of patients are open to new or different approaches to patient care in order to facilitate positive outcomes. RN-to-BSN degree completion programs can foster the acquisition of new skills and changes in nurses' attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors when conceptual frameworks are used which emphasize connections and relationships, exploration and navigation, sensemaking and shared decision making, and collaboration and interdisciplinarity. |
