Factors Affecting Professional Self-Concept among Psychiatric Nurses in South Korea

Background: we aimed to investigate factors affecting ego-resilience, emotional labor, and job satisfaction and their relationship with professional self-concept among psychiatric nurses. methods: the study was conducted among nurses working in four psychiatric wards: sung eun medical foundation reference hospital (medical corporation) in jeongeup city, korea; dasarang hospital in gwangju, korea; saemirae hospital in gwangju (metropolitan city), korea; and jangseong hospital in jangseong-eup city, korea. all nurses fully understood the purpose of the study and voluntarily agreed to participate. from august 14 to september 24, 2020, direct survey data were collected by a researcher using a structured questionnaire. of the 136 questionnaires retrieved, 129 were used for analysis, while 7 were excluded due to incomplete or missing responses. results: significantly different effects on professional self-concept were noted for the following general characteristics: age (p<0.001), religion (p=0.024), duration of nursing career (p=0.041), position (p=0.021), salary (p=0.016), nursing job satisfaction (p=0.022), and psychiatric nursing job satisfaction (p=0.010). moreover, professional self-concept was correlated with ego-resilience (r=0.62, p<0.001) and job satisfaction (r=0.41, p<0.001). in the multiple regression analysis, factors affecting professional self-concept included no religious preference (β=0.25, p<0.001), employment as a charge nurse (β=-0.20, p=0.034), and ego-resilience (β=0.58, p<0.001). the explanatory power was 42.1%. conclusion: ego-resilience is the factor most strongly influencing professional self-concept. furthermore, professional self-concept was stronger among those without religious preferences and those who held senior positions (charge nurse).