AUTHOR=Su Maoxia , Deng Qian , Hu Yi , Chen Yanni 

TITLE=Development trajectory of humanistic care and occupational calling in nursing students during internship: a multi-center longitudinal study

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Medicine

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/medicine/articles/10.3389/fmed.2025.1632335

DOI=10.3389/fmed.2025.1632335

ISSN=2296-858X

ABSTRACT=ObjectiveTo explore the development trajectory of humanistic care and occupational calling of college nursing students and the predictive relationship between them, so as to provide a theoretical basis for improving the occupational calling of nursing students.MethodsFrom April 1, 2023 to May 30, 2024, a total of 366 nursing students from 10 colleges and universities in China were selected as the research objects in a longitudinal survey. T1: the early stage of internship (1 to 2 months of internship), T2: the middle stage of internship (4 to 5 months of internship), T3: At the end of internship (8 to 10 months of internship), the humanistic care and occupational calling of nursing students were tracked and investigated, and the cross-lag model and latent growth model were used for data analysis.Results342 valid questionnaires were collected (effective recovery rate 93.44%). The cross-lag model showed that: The level of humanistic care at the previous time node significantly positively predicted the occupational calling at the next node (β = 0.431, p < 0.01, β = 0.408, p < 0.001), and the occupational calling at the previous time node on average significantly positively predicted the humanistic care at the next node (β = 0.426, p < 0.001, β = 0.414, p < 0.001). The latent variable growth model showed that the humanistic care of college nursing students in the internship stage showed an upward trend (S = 1.025, p < 0.001), and the occupational calling showed an upward trend (S = 1.155, p < 0.001). At the initial level, humanistic care could predict occupational calling (β = 0.458, p = 0.002), and both the initial level (β = 0.417, p = 0.008) and the development speed (β = 0.439, p < 0.001) of humanistic care could positively predict the development speed of occupational calling. The initial level of occupational calling could positively predict the development speed of occupational calling (β = 0.297, p = 0.020).ConclusionHumanistic care and occupational calling of nursing students are on the rise. College teachers and clinical teachers should pay attention to the evaluation of humanistic care of nursing students, and rationally use the interaction between humanistic care and occupational calling, which has a positive effect on improving nursing students’ occupational calling.