This systematic review, authored by Simone Cosmai, Jasmen Ali, and a team of researchers, and published in the Infermieristica Journal in March 2025, provides a comprehensive synthesis of the professional values declared by nursing students during their academic education. The study highlights the critical importance of professional values in nursing practice, noting their influence on the quality of nurse care and ethical decisions, especially within an evolving educational and healthcare landscape. The authors emphasize that defining these values is more essential than ever due to increasing globalization, diversity, healthcare disparities, and persistent ethical dilemmas.
Key Aspects of the Review:
- Purpose and Rationale: The primary aim of this systematic review was to identify the professional values expressed by nursing students throughout their academic journey. A secondary objective was to identify and describe the measurement instruments used to assess these values. The article underscores that professional values are fundamental to decision-making in nursing and are shaped by personal experiences, culture, environment, and education. The continuous development of these values begins when students enter nursing programs and continues throughout their careers, transforming personal values into professional ones that define their practice.
- Methodology:
- Conducted in accordance with the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and adhering to the PRISMA ScR Checklist reporting system. The protocol was prospectively registered in PROSPERO (CRD42024520854).
- The research question was structured using the PCC framework, focusing on nursing students (P), professional values and their measurement scales (C), within the educational environment (C).
- A comprehensive literature search was performed in December 2024 across multiple databases, including PubMed/Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus, yielding 21,071 initial records.
- After a rigorous screening process, 29 relevant primary quantitative studies were included in the review.
- Regarding methodological quality, while the abstract and study characteristics reported a “low methodological quality assessment”, the detailed assessment indicated that all included studies demonstrated acceptable methodological quality. Specifically, all three cohort studies achieved a 100% quality score, and all selected cross-sectional studies were evaluated as high quality.
- Key Findings:
- The most frequently cited professional value among nursing students was Caring, highlighted across diverse cultural contexts.
- Other significant values included Trust, particularly in the United States and Italy, and Human Dignity, emphasized in Turkey and Israel.
- Activism and Altruism were also identified as important, along with Justice, Nursing Professionalism, Obedience to Authority, Truth, and the Principle of Duty.
- Commonly used measurement instruments included the Nursing Professional Values Scale (NPVS) and its revised versions (NPVS-R, NPVS-3), as well as region-specific tools like the Ethical Values Scale and the Salford-Scott Nursing Values Questionnaire.
- The review found that academic education profoundly impacts the development of professional values, with students’ average scores increasing as they advanced through their academic years. For instance, fourth-year nursing students scored higher on several values compared to earlier years.
- Sociocultural influences were also evident, with differences observed in value priorities between students from different countries, such as the emphasis on Trust in the US versus Caring in Taiwan.
- Implications and Conclusion: The review strongly advocates for continued investment in nursing education that not only imparts technical knowledge but also fosters ethical and human values. The internalization of a professional identity rooted in core nursing values is deemed essential for ensuring high-quality care and patient satisfaction. The findings provide a “snapshot” of the current state of professional values among nursing students, offering a baseline for monitoring future adaptations to new healthcare contexts and challenges. Ultimately, the review suggests that active student involvement in professional preparation, with a focus on value development, is crucial for forming more conscious professionals and optimizing patient-centered care.
Reference: Cosmai, S., Ali, J., Allevi, D., Bergamelli, G., Valsecchi, A., Chiari, C., Gibellato, A., Mancin, S., Lopane, D., Piredda, M., & Mazzoleni, B. (2025). The Professional Values of Nursing Students: A Systematic Review. Infermieristica Journal, 4(1), 131–142. http://doi.org/10.36253/if-3539