| The purpose of this study was to explore the process of establishing the professional identity of Japanese nurses. Professional identity was defined as self-identification with the nursing profession in Japan. Following a grounded theory design, data were generated by interviews, multi site participant observations, and theoretical memos. Eighteen Japanese nurses who were selected by theoretical sampling were formally interviewed. All tape-recorded interviews were transcribed in Japanese. Data were analyzed using methods of constant comparative analysis. Throughout the analysis both Japanese and English were used to avoid losing the subtle nuances of the Japanese language.;Six categories emerged from the data: learning from working experiences, recognizing the value of nursing, establishing one's own philosophy of nursing, gaining influence from education, having a commitment to nursing, and integrating a nurse into self. The core category, bonding into nursing, incorporated the relationship between and among all categories and explained the process of establishing the professional identity of Japanese nurses.;Bonding into nursing was described as a beginning substantive theory, defined as the process each nurse experienced to establish her/his professional identity as a nurse. Nurses teamed about nursing and themselves from interactions with their clients and other nurses. Becoming aware of the value of a nurse's work, they recognized this work as worthwhile. They also realized that being a nurse was an important part of their personal self.;Later in their career, nurses established and strongly held their own philosophy of nursing based on their working experiences. They now had a strong commitment to care and self-confidence as a nurse. As the last stage of the bonding into nursing process, nurses experienced the integration of their personal self and being a nurse, identifying themselves as a nurse and actualizing and integrating nursing into their self concept. In the process of bonding into nursing, a multidimensional and overlapping process, education was an influential factor. Implications of this study for nursing education, practice, and research were discussed. |
