title: Nursing professional identity: an infant or one with Alzheimer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Each group or profession has its own discourse. Discourses create identity, support institutions and reproduce power relationships. Professional identity of Iranian nurses, which has recently had the opportunity to represent itself in social arena, needs investigation. This study aimed to make internal aspect of this identity clear.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study was conducted by discourse analysis, using data of 23 semi-structured individual interviews and 4 focus group interviews with nurses and senior nursing students of Tehran and Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Iran, to evaluate their professional identity.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In professional self-concept, elements like spirituality value and low financial benefits were identified as well as conflicting features of holiness and humility, identity emerging, identity escape, low professional self-confidence and justice seeking, lost professional authority and pride.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nursing professional identity has been formed based on cultural social structure, values and beliefs governing health system. This is a spectrum of a growing and emerging identity to a developed but forgotten identity. Although nursing discourse is subordinate in health system discourse, signs of moving toward professional maturity have emerged.
authors.affiliation: PhD Student, Department of Critical Care Nursing, Nursing and Midwifery Care Research Center, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Ahmadreza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yazdannik
authors.forename: Zohreh Parsa
authors.initials: ZP
authors.lastname: Yekta
authors.forename: Aliasghar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soltani
keywords: Professional identity; discourse analysis; nursing