Professional culture brokers: Nursing faculty perceptions of nursing culture and their role in student formation * Susan M. Strouse a, * , Carolyn J. Nickerson b, 1 a Grand Valley State University, Kirkhof College of Nursing, 476 CHS Building, 301 Michigan St. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503, USA b Nursing Education Consultant, 511 Keystone Ave., Cresson, PA 16630, USA article info Article history: Received 26 July 2014 Received in revised form 8 February 2016 Accepted 18 February 2016 Keywords: Nursing education Culture Socialization Roles abstract Socialization, or formation of students to the professional nurse role, is an expectation of nursing edu- cation. This process is complex and challenging for students, who continue to experience culture shock moving from academe to practice settings. Viewing formation as enculturation is one way to address culture shock. Nursing faculty are key figures in this process, yet their views are not known. This focused ethnography study explored nursing faculty's perceptions about the culture of nursing and how they bring students into that culture. Data collected at two accredited, undergraduate pre-licensure bacca- laureate nursing programs were analyzed using Leininger's four phases of data analysis. Four themes emerged: 1. The culture of nursing is multifaceted, multivalent and at times contradictory 2. Many factors interact and have influence on the culture of nursing 3. Navigating the subcultures (academia, service and organizational culture) is challenging for faculty, and 4. Nursing faculty believe that the right con- ditions facilitate the enculturation of students. Nursing faculty believe nursing has a professional culture and they bring students into that culture. Viewing the faculty role in enculturation to professional nursing as a culture broker can facilitate the process for students and mitigate the culture shock new graduate nurses experience. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) regards “professionalism and professional values” as one of nine essentials of baccalaureate nursing education (2008, p. 26). The authors of that document assert that the “use of the term ‘professional’ im- plies the formation of a professional identity” (AACN, 2008, p. 9). Benner and colleagues concur that formation, more effectively than socialization, describes this process, since formation “denotes development … [of] a way of being and acting in practice and the world” (2010, p. 166). Professional formation might profitably be thought of as enculturation, formation of the new identity that occurs over time when a lay person enters a professional culture. Background The primary responsibility for planning educational programs that prepare students for practice rests with nursing faculty in schools of nursing. As part of these responsibilities, nursing faculty have long been concerned with what has been regarded as pro- fessional socialization. On the basis of their recent concept analysis of the term, professional socialization, Dinmohammadi et al. (2013) affirm that professional socialization includes professional identity formation. They define professional socialization as the “dynamic, interactive process through which attitudes, knowledge, skills, values, norms, and behaviors of the nursing profession are inter- nalized and a professional identity is developed” (Dinmohammadi et al., 2013, p. 32). Their definition reflects the complexity of the process and echoes the expressed concerns about nurse facultys' approaches to fostering a professional identity in students (Benner et al., 2010, p. 86). Benner and colleagues describe the formation process as the: development of perceptual abilities, the ability to draw on knowledge and skilled know-how … Formation occurs over time with the transformation from the well-meaning lay person * The authors acknowledge Sigma Theta Tau International Alpha Psi Chapter for partial funding of this study, and Michigan State University and Duquesne Uni- versity for their support in this research study. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 616 331 5671. E-mail addresses: strouses@gvsu.edu (S.M. Strouse), carolyn.j.nickerson@gmail. com (C.J. Nickerson). 1 Tel.: þ1 814 886 4712. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Nurse Education in Practice journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/nepr http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2016.02.008 1471-5953/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Nurse Education in Practice 18 (2016) 10e15