From Ward Nurse to Home-Based Practitioner: A Protocol for a Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry into Evolving Professional Identity

Abstract

Nurses transitioning from hospital ward settings to home-based care face unique challenges that can impact their professional identity. This paper outlines a protocol for a hermeneutic phenomenological study exploring how nurses experience this transition and negotiate their evolving professional identities. The conceptual framework draws upon positioning theory augmented with a willingness, capability, and power lens to examine nurses deliberated self-positioning and forced self-positioning across the stages of pre-positioning, negotiated positioning, and performed positioning. Data will be collected through two rounds of in-depth interviews and participant observation with 15–20 nurses who have transitioned from ward to home-based practice within the past 5 years. Thematic analysis following hermeneutic phenomenological principles will be conducted to identify themes reflecting the essence of the transition experience and identity transformation process. Rigor will be enhanced through strategies including triangulation, member checking, thick description, and reflexive journaling. Findings may inform educational and organizational strategies to better support nurses through this career transition. Understanding the dynamics of nursing identity transformation in this context addresses a key gap in the literature and may offer insights transferable to other nursing transitions and health professions.

Keywords

nursing professional identity hermeneutic phenomenology positioning theory willingness-capability-power framework identity transformation nursing career development

Introduction

The transition from providing nursing care in hospital wards to delivering care in patients’ homes represents a significant career shift that many nurses experience. While both roles involve applying nursing knowledge and skills to promote patient health and wellbeing, home-based nursing presents unique challenges and opportunities compared to ward nursing. Home care nurses often work more independently, engage with patients and families in their own environments, coordinate with interprofessional teams, and address complex psychosocial and environmental determinants of health (Ellenbecker et al., 2008; Furåker, 2008). This transition requires not only developing new clinical and relational competencies but also renegotiating one’s professional identity.

Professional identity refers to an individual’s dynamic self-concept relating to their occupation, encompassing their attributes, beliefs, values, motives, experiences, and ways of being and acting in a professional role (Ibarra, 1999). For nurses, professional identity begins forming through educational socialization and continues evolving throughout the career in response to work experiences, interpersonal interactions, and contextual influences (Benner, 1982; Johnson et al., 2012). Transitioning into new roles, settings, or specialties prompts nurses to re-examine and reconstruct their professional identities to align with new demands, relationships, and practices (MacIntosh, 2003).

A strong, internalized professional identity is associated with important outcomes for nurses, organizations, and patients. At an individual level, nurses with a clear and positive sense of professional identity report higher job satisfaction, self-esteem, and organizational and occupational commitment (Cowin et al., 2013; Sabanciogullari & Dogan, 2015; Sabancıogullari & Dogan, 2015). Conversely, nurses experiencing professional identity struggles or misalignments are more likely to face moral distress, burnout, and attrition (Fagerberg & Kihlgren, 2001; MacIntosh, 2003). A well-developed professional identity also supports nurses’ clinical reasoning, ethical decision-making, interprofessional collaboration, and patient-centered care delivery (Ghadirian et al., 2014; Ohlén & Segesten, 1998; ten Hoeve et al., 2014). Organizationally, nursing professional identity is linked to enhanced recruitment, retention, and care quality (He et al., 2024). Strategies for facilitating professional identity development are important for cultivating a resilient, engaged nursing workforce to meet increasing demands for home-based care delivery.

However, nursing professional identity and its renegotiation through role transitions remains an undertheorized and empirically emergent area of inquiry. While previous studies have explored professional identity formation among nursing students (Johnson et al., 2012; Shinyashiki et al., 2006) and new graduate nurses (Deppoliti, 2008; Feng & Tsai, 2012), research examining professional identity experiences of mid-career nurses transitioning between roles or settings is limited. A handful of studies have begun to explore nursing transitions from acute to primary care (Ashley et al., 2018; Murray-Parahi et al., 2016) and from hospital to community-based mental health nursing (Clancy et al., 2015; Cleary et al., 2011), highlighting the changing competency demands, scopes of practice, and philosophical approaches that experienced nurses must navigate. However, the specific transition from hospital ward to home-based nursing practice has received little research attention to date. With rising global demands for home health services to support aging populations and care delivery transformations (Beer et al., 2014), home care nursing is a rapidly growing and evolving practice context rife with professional identity implications.

To address this knowledge gap, this paper outlines a protocol for a hermeneutic phenomenological study exploring how nurses experience the transition from hospital ward to home-based practice with a focus on professional identity transformation. The study aim is to elicit and interpret nurses’ lived experiences of renegotiating their professional identities as they take on home care nursing roles. Specific research questions include:

1. How do nurses experience the transition from ward to home-based practice in terms of roles, relationships, and care practices?

2. How do nurses perceive and negotiate their changing professional identities across the transition, in relation to: (a) Deliberated self-positioning and identity aspirations; (b) Forced self-positioning from role expectations and social interactions; (c) Negotiation of discrepant positions and identity tensions; and (d) Performed positionings and identity enactments in practice

3. What personal and contextual factors influence nurses’ perceived willingness, capability, and power to construct and embody new identities as home care nurses?

4. What are the implications of professional identity transformation experiences for: (a) Nurses’ job satisfaction, stress, and retention; (b) Educational preparation and ongoing professional development; and (c) Organizational and professional supports for role transitions

Exploring these questions may offer valuable insights for nurses, managers, educators, and policymakers into the dynamics, challenges, and supports involved in professional identity shifts during this important career transition. Understanding how nurses renegotiate their identities is vital for implementing empowering practices to socialize capable, committed home care nurses and enhance the expanding home health workforce (Phillips et al., 2006).

Conceptual Framework

This study integrates two complementary theoretical lenses to examine professional identity transformation: positioning theory and the willingness, capability, and power (WCP) framework. Positioning theory provides an overarching framework for conceptualizing identity as dynamically constructed through discursive role-taking and interaction (Harré & Langenhove, 1999). The WCP framework extends this by considering how personal desires, abilities, and contextual power structures influence the identity positions individuals can assume (Davies & Harré, 2007). Together, these lenses enable nuanced exploration of how nurses actively negotiate identity in interaction with perceived expectations and opportunities.

Positioning Theory

Positioning theory, rooted in social constructionism, views identity as a fluid, multifaceted construction continually renegotiated through discourse and social interaction (Harré & Langenhove, 1999). A position refers to a cluster of rights, duties, and expectations that an individual assumes or is ascribed within an unfolding social context or “storyline” (Harré et al., 2009).

Positioning is the dynamic process of locating oneself and others within these storylines through ongoing role assignments, contestations, and reconfigurations (Davies & Harré, 2007). It is through repeated positionings in interaction that identities are tried on, modified, and sedimented. Key concepts include:

• Deliberated self-positioning: The identity positions an individual claims for themselves in a given context based on their aspirations, self-concept, and desired social meanings (Davies & Harré, 2007; Harré & Moghaddam, 2003).

• Forced self-positioning: The identity positions that others or institutions impose on the individual, which may affirm or conflict with their deliberated self-positioning (Davies & Harré, 2007).

• Storylines: The evolving social narratives and structures of meaning that shape available positions and the discursive resources individuals use to negotiate them (Harré et al., 2009).

Positioning theory attends to the back-and-forth of first and second order positioning, where claimed identities may be accepted, challenged, or reformulated by others, triggering reflective repositioning (Harré & Langenhove, 1999). It focuses analytical attention on how identities are asserted in context-specific discursive practices, the constraints and affordances of pre-existing storylines and role repertoires, and the relational co-construction of social meanings (Van Langenhove & Harré, 1999).

Applying positioning theory to nursing professional identity transformations provides a useful framework for exploring the dynamic, contested ways nurses renegotiate who they are and what they do as they enter new practice domains. It enables examining the identity positions nurses deliberately assume; the expectations and counter positions they encounter from patients, families, colleagues, and institutions; and how they discursively reposition themselves to craft provisional selves aligned with shifting social contexts. Positioning directs analytical focus to the active identity work and social processes through which nurses develop and embody new role identities.

Willingness, Capability, and Power (WCP) Framework

To further unpack the personal and contextual influences on identity positioning, this study integrates a willingness, capability, and power (WCP) framework (Davies & Harré, 2007). The WCP framework considers how an individual’s perceived willingness, capability, and power within a given storyline impacts their likelihood of successfully assuming a particular identity position.

• Willingness refers to an individual’s desire to adopt and enact an identity position (Davies & Harré, 2007). It concerns the extent to which the position aligns with one’s values, goals, and self-concept, providing a source of intrinsic motivation (Linehan & McCarthy, 2001).

• Capability refers to an individual’s actual and perceived ability to fulfill the demands of an identity position based on their embodied knowledge, skills, and attributes (Davies & Harré, 2007).

• Power refers to an individual’s contextual authority, resources, and social capital to take up an identity position within a given institution or relationship (Davies & Harré, 2007). It relates to socially conferred rights and duties.

From a WCP perspective, the identity positions an individual successfully negotiates depend not only on their aspiration toward the position (willingness) but also their self-efficacy to enact it (capability) and the validation and empowerment received from others (power). Misalignments between willingness, capability, and power can result in identity insecurities, conflicts, and constraints. For instance, a nurse may aspire to embrace an identity position as an autonomous, expert home care provider (willingness) yet feel uncertain about their competencies to manage clients independently (capability) or lack the structural supports to fully enact this role (power), resulting in an ongoing struggle to reconcile actual and ideal selves.

WCP thus provides a valuable complementary lens for examining the individual and systemic factors that condition possibilities for identity transformation as nurses transition from wards to home care settings. It enables exploring how nurses’ motivations, competencies, and sociopolitical contexts intersect to constrain or resource their identity work at individual, relational, and institutional levels.

Methodology

Study Design and Approach

This qualitative study employs a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to explore nurse identity transformation through the transition from ward to home-based practice. Hermeneutic phenomenology is a research approach that aims to interpretively uncover the subjective meanings and shared structures of a phenomenon as experienced and made sense of by individuals in context (Finlay, 2011; Van Manen, 2016). Drawing on Heidegger’s (Heidegger, 1962) existential phenomenology and Gadamer’s (Gadamer, 1975) hermeneutic philosophy, it posits that lived experience is intrinsically situated, perspectival, and fused with sociohistorical meanings (Van Manen, 2016). The researcher engages in a double hermeneutic, apprehending participants’ sense-making experiences while reflexively interpreting the phenomenon through their own preunderstandings (Benner, 1994). The objective is to evocatively illuminate the essential meanings that constitute the phenomenon in an interpretive “fusion of horizons” with participants (Gadamer, 1975).

Hermeneutic phenomenology is well-suited for this study as it aligns with the constructionist underpinnings of positioning theory, which asserts identities are variably enacted through situated interpretations and interaction (Harré & Langenhove, 1999). The approach enables in-depth exploration of the meaning-making processes through which nurses construct coherent identities across a disruptive role transition. Gathering rich experiential accounts and engaging in iterative, reflexive interpretation supports understanding identity work as contextually embedded, multidimensional, and coproduced. The focus on existentials of lived time, space, body, and relationship (Van Manen, 2016) provides useful lenses for evoking the temporal, spatial, embodied, and relational aspects of renegotiating identity in new care contexts. Phenomenological methods of intensive interviewing, close observation, and textual analysis also fit well with examining the narrative positioning processes through which identities are discursively fashioned (Harré & Langenhove, 1999). At the same time, the WCP framework provides sensitizing concepts for attending to agential, capability, and power dimensions within participants’ interpreted experiences. Together, hermeneutic phenomenology and positioning analysis offer a powerful approach for revealing identity transformation as an interpretive process of becoming within personal and social contexts.

Participants and Sampling

Participants will be purposively sampled Registered Nurses who have transitioned from acute ward settings into home-based practice within the last 5 years. Inclusion criteria are current licensure as an RN, at least 2 years prior experience in a ward role, transitioned to home care nursing within the past 5 years, and practicing in a home care role for at least 6 months. Exclusion criteria include prior home care experience predating most recent ward role, working in home care as a secondary rather than primary position, and non-fluency in English. Recruitment will occur through distributing information letters to home health organizations, placing notices in nursing association publications/websites, and snowball sampling.

A purposive sample of 15–20 participants is projected based on hermeneutic phenomenology sampling conventions (Creswell & Poth, 2016) and the anticipated diversity of transition experiences. However, precise determination of the final sample will be based on achieving sufficiency of information power (Malterud et al., 2016) to richly capture the phenomenon based on study aim, specificity, theory, dialogue quality, and analysis strategy. Within these parameters, maximum variation of participant characteristics (e.g., age, gender, years in practice, transition timing, agency type) will be sought to enable evoking a range of identity experiences and discerning essential structures. Sampling and data collection will continue iteratively until a substantive understanding of the phenomenon is developed as evidenced by information redundancy and theoretical saturation of the positioning analysis framework (Aldiabat & Le Navenec, 2018).

Data Collection

Data collection will involve two rounds of in-depth interviews with all participants, supplemented by participant observation with a smaller subsample. Individual semi-structured interviews are the core method for accessing detailed experiential accounts and engaging in interpretive dialogue (Creswell & Poth, 2016). Conducting two interviews per participant supports exploring the evolution of identity positioning over time and pursuing emerging insights.

The first interview (60–90 min) will occur at the participant’s preferred private location and explore their unfolding transition and identity experiences. The interview guide (see Appendix A) will encompass open-ended questions about prior ward experience, motivations and decision-making around transitioning to home care, initial impressions and challenges in the new role, evolving conceptions of nursing identity, significant experiences of affirmation or dissonance, and future aspirations. Probes will elicit details of positioning in relation to key storylines, social others, and institutional discourses. The guide will be flexibly adapted to the participant’s emerging account.

The second interview (30–60 min) will occur 3–4 months later and focus on the participant’s ongoing transition and identity experiences. The follow-up interval allows time for the participant to live through additional identity-shaping experiences and for the researcher to reflect on preliminary interpretations. The interview will revisit key themes from the first dialogue and explore current self-understandings, any new positionings or turning points, and evolving ideas about what it means to be a home care nurse. The researcher will also engage in interpretive discussion of tentative phenomenological meanings of the transition.

In-depth interviews will be supplemented with participant observation with a purposive subsample of 5–10 participants to enrich and triangulate understanding of identity enactment in everyday practice. Observation will involve shadowing each selected participant for 1-– home visits (2–4 h) to directly observe their embodied positioning in interaction with patients and families. The researcher will assume an observer-as-participant role, primarily observing while assisting with minor tasks if appropriate (Gold, 2017). Fieldnotes will record positioning interactions, care practices, and contextual features guided by an observation template (see Appendix B). A brief post-observation dialogue will elicit the participant’s reflections on the care encounter and links to professional identity.

Document analysis will involve the researcher collecting practice-related artifacts such as job descriptions, competency checklists, care protocols, training materials, or reflective writings voluntarily shared by participants. These “text-analogues” of practice enable examining institutional discourses and social expectations that condition possibilities for identity positioning (Smith, 2005). The researcher will also maintain a reflexive journal documenting their own evolving preunderstandings, interpretive dilemmas, and emerging insights throughout data collection to aid subsequent analysis.

All interviews will be audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Fieldnotes and reflexive writing will be promptly developed. Participant documents will be anonymized and stored securely. Data collection and analysis will proceed iteratively, with early interviews informing later sampling and ongoing interpretation.

Data Analysis

Data analysis will follow an interpretive phenomenological approach adapted from Benner (Benner, 1994), Finlay (Finlay, 2011), and Ironside (Ironside, 2006). The focus is on analyzing data to evocatively reveal the phenomenon’s essential meanings as interpreted by participants and researchers.

Analysis involves an iterative spiral of immersion in the data, phenomenological reflection, interpretive writing, and critical dialogue (Ironside, 2006). Immersion begins with multiple close readings of transcripts and fieldnotes to gain a sense of the whole and locate data in the context of the participant’s overarching narrative. Phenomenological reflection involves “dwelling” with the data and engaging in preliminary thematic analysis by discerning and coding key positioning statements, metaphors, storylines, and experiential patterns (Finlay, 2011). Writing and rewriting are integral interpretive processes for evoking and refining the phenomenon’s thematic meanings, moving between parts and whole (Ironside, 2006).

As overarching themes crystallize, the researcher engages in critical dialogue with participants and the research team to challenge and enrich interpretations. Participants are offered their individual narrative summaries and the overall thematic structure for input and validation, fostering co-creation of findings (Finlay, 2011). Resonance and plausibility of interpretations are enhanced through hermeneutic processes of integrating participant, researcher, and theoretical understandings.

The analytical procedure will begin with holistic reading to apprehend the fundamental meaning of each participant’s transition experience, followed by selective highlighting of positioning statements that reveal the identity constructions at play, including deliberate and forced positionings in relation to key storylines and social others. This will progress to detailed line-by-line coding of positioning acts, considering alignment/tensions between positions taken and assigned, role expectations, and plots; moments of identity dissonance/consonance; and links to willingness, capability, and power.

The researcher will then conduct constant comparative analysis within and across cases to discern recurring positioning patterns, identity challenges, and shared storylines, developing working themes and exemplars. Interpretive writing will combine phenomenological description and positioning analysis to evoke identity transformation through the transition and detail its meanings, incorporating participant quotes. This will be followed by critical dialogue with participants and the research team to test, refine, and elaborate interpretations, ultimately developing a final thematic structure. The final step involves integrating theoretical insights and reflexive understandings into a coherent interpretive narrative of the essence of identity transformation through this nursing role transition. Throughout this process, the researcher will maintain a detailed audit trail documenting analytical decisions and interpretations. Data management and coding will be supported using NVivo 12 software to organize the rich qualitative material and facilitate the interpretive analysis process.

Rigor

Interpretive phenomenological studies establish rigor through trustworthiness criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Lincoln & Guba, 1988; Shenton, 2004). Several strategies will be implemented to enhance trustworthiness. Triangulation will be achieved by collecting data through multiple methods (interviews, observation, documents) and sources (multiple participants, varied contexts) to generate a rich, comprehensive understanding. Prolonged engagement will involve conducting a series of in-depth interviews and immersive observation to build trust and obtain deep experiential accounts. Persistent observation will attend to positioning processes, contexts and participant responses in a focused, attentive way through close listening/observation and probing emerging interpretations. Member checking will invite participant validation of individual narrative summaries and overall thematic structure to ensure resonance with lived experience. Peer debriefing will engage regular dialogue with the research team to discuss positionality, challenge assumptions, and refine interpretations in light of alternative viewpoints. Thick description will provide rich, evocative descriptions of participants, contexts and findings to enable reader assessment of transferability to other settings. Maximum variation will be achieved by purposively sampling diverse participants to explore the complexity of the phenomenon and delineate common themes that hold across varied contexts. An audit trail will be maintained with detailed records of methodological, analytical, and reflexive decisions to permit tracing of interpretive conclusions back to the data. Reflexive journaling will engage critical self-reflection on preunderstandings, reactions to the data, and interpretive choices and their impact on the research process and product.

Attention to these dimensions of trustworthiness will strengthen the integrity and persuasiveness of findings. The goal is to generate an evocative, believable, and meaningful account of identity transformation that authentically captures participants’ lived experiences while acknowledging the researcher’s role in co-constructing interpretations.

Ethical Considerations

The study received approval from the National Healthcare Group Domain Specific Review Board (NHG DSRB reference: 2025-0262) for the period from 12 March 2025 to 11 March 2026 at Alexandra Hospital. All participants will provide written informed consent using the approved form prior to any study procedures. Confidentiality will be maintained through pseudonyms and data segregation. The research adheres to all requirements for reporting unanticipated problems, protocol changes, and status updates in compliance with the Human Biomedical Research Act and related legislation. All approved study materials, including the Semi-Structured Interview Guide and Recruitment Flyer, will be used according to DSRB stipulations (S1 File).

Discussion

The protocol outlined for this hermeneutic phenomenological study represents a methodologically rigorous approach to exploring the lived experience of nurses transitioning from hospital ward settings to home-based care. This investigation into professional identity transformation addresses a significant gap in nursing scholarship while offering potential insights for education, practice, and policy.

The transition from ward to home-based nursing practice constitutes a profound shift in professional context that warrants dedicated phenomenological inquiry. Unlike previous research focusing predominantly on student-to-practitioner transitions or new graduate socialization, this study examines mid-career identity renegotiation—a process with distinct challenges and dynamics. The increasing shift toward home-based care delivery globally makes this investigation particularly timely and relevant.

Home-based nursing practice represents a unique context where professional identity must be reconstructed. The autonomous nature of home care, the changed power dynamics of practicing in patients’ own environments, and the necessity of navigating complex psychosocial determinants of health all contribute to potential identity tensions. By conceptualizing identity through positioning theory and the willingness-capability-power (WCP) framework, this study moves beyond viewing transition as mere skill acquisition to examine the deeper processes of meaning-making, self-positioning, and identity negotiation.

Drawing on these established theoretical frameworks, the methodological design demonstrates several strengths. The proposed two-phase interviewing approach enables capturing both initial transition experiences and the evolution of identity positioning over time. Supplementing interviews with participant observation adds an important dimension of witnessing enacted positionings in authentic practice contexts, potentially revealing tacit aspects of identity that may not emerge through interviews alone. The attention to triangulation, member checking, and reflexivity strengthens the trustworthiness of interpretations.

However, several methodological challenges warrant consideration. Participants’ retrospective accounts of transition experiences may be influenced by memory reconstruction and present identity positions. Those who struggled significantly with the transition may be less represented in the sample if they have left home-based practice altogether. Additionally, the researcher’s own positioning as interpreter necessitates ongoing reflexivity about how their own nursing identity constructions and transition experiences might shape their interpretations of participants’ accounts. These challenges will need careful attention throughout the research process.

The findings from this study may have significant implications across multiple domains of nursing. At the individual level, understanding the identity negotiations involved in this transition could help nurses anticipate and navigate identity challenges proactively. Phenomenological insights into how nurses successfully integrate ward and home-based identity elements could inform self-reflective practices and identity work strategies.

At the organizational level, findings may guide the development of transition support programs that address not only competency development but also identity transformation processes. Home health agencies might implement structural supports that facilitate nurses’ willingness, capability, and power to enact desired professional identities. Mentorship models informed by positioning theory could create relational spaces where nurses can experiment with provisional selves and receive validation for emerging identity positions.

For nursing education, insights from this study could inform curriculum development to better prepare students for diverse practice settings and identity transitions throughout their careers. Educational institutions could develop targeted learning experiences that specifically address the unique demands of home-based care contexts and the professional adaptability required.

While focused specifically on the ward-to-home-care transition, this study’s theoretical framework and methodological approach may offer transferable insights for understanding other nursing role transitions. The knowledge gained about identity transformation processes may be valuable across various nursing career pathways and contexts.

This protocol establishes a foundation for several potential research trajectories. Future studies might extend this work by conducting longitudinal investigations that follow nurses from pre-transition through multiple years in home-based practice to capture the full arc of identity transformation. Researchers could also examine the bidirectional relationship between professional identity and interprofessional collaboration in home-based settings, where nurses interact with diverse healthcare providers in less structured environments. Investigating how organizational cultures and discourses shape available identity positions for home-based nurses would provide valuable insights into institutional influences on professional identity development. As healthcare delivery evolves, exploring the impact of digital technologies on home-based nursing identity as telehealth and remote monitoring transform care delivery will become increasingly relevant.

This research protocol provides a structured approach to investigating an important yet understudied aspect of nursing career development. As the healthcare landscape continues to shift toward community and home-based care models, understanding how nurses navigate identity transitions across these contexts becomes increasingly vital for supporting workforce development and quality care delivery.

Supplemental Material

Supplemental Material - From Ward Nurse to Home-Based Practitioner: A Protocol for a Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry into Evolving Professional Identity

Supplemental Material for From Ward Nurse to Home-Based Practitioner: A Protocol for a Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry into Evolving Professional Identity by Ravi Shankar, Fiona Devi, Joyce Er, Emily Ang, Janet Lam Mei Peng, and Amartya Mukhopadhyay in International Journal of Qualitative Methods

Footnotes

ORCID iDs

Ravi Shankar

Fiona Devi

Ethical Considerations

This study received ethical approval from the National Healthcare Group Domain Specific Review Board (NHG DSRB Ref: 2025-0262) on 12 March 2025. The approval is valid from 12 March 2025 to 11 March 2026. The documents reviewed and approved by the NHG DSRB include the Application Form (2025-0262-APP1), Semi-Structured Interview Guide (Version 01 dated 15 February 2025), Recruitment Flyer (Version 02 dated 04 March 2025), and Informed Consent Form (Version 03 dated 11 March 2025).

Consent to Participate

All participants will be required to provide written informed consent prior to participation in the study. The approved Informed Consent Form (Version 03 dated 11 March 2025) will be used, and each participant will receive a copy of their signed consent form.

Consent for Publication

All participants will be informed through the consent process that anonymized data and quotes may be used in publications. No identifiable information will be published.

Author Contributions

Author R.S. was responsible for the research conceptualization, development of the methodology, and study design. Authors R.S. and A.M. jointly developed the interview guide and recruitment materials. Author A.M. provided clinical expertise and guidance on healthcare team dynamics. Authors J.E., E.A., and J.L.M.P. contributed expertise on nursing practice transitions and professional identity development. Author R.S. drafted the ethics application and study materials. All authors contributed to the development of the participant selection criteria and analysis strategy. R.S. will lead data collection with support from F.D. All authors will participate in data analysis and interpretation using the hermeneutic phenomenological approach. All authors contributed to protocol revision and have read and approved the final version submitted to the NHG DSRB.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The study is being conducted as part of the departmental research initiatives at Alexandra Hospital, National University Health System, Singapore.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Data Availability Statement

Research data will be managed according to the National Healthcare Group’s data management policies and in compliance with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act. All study materials have been reviewed and approved by the NHG DSRB (Ref: 2025-0262).*

Supplemental Material

Supplemental material for this article is available online.

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