Social media usage by Saudi undergraduate nursing students and the development of their professional identity: A mixed methods study

The professional identity of nursing students involves student nurses perceiving themselves as developing the attributes of nursing professionals. The aim of this study was to explore the influence of social media usage on the development of Saudi undergraduate nursing students' professional identity using an exploratory sequential mixed methods design. It is concluded that the more students purposefully engaged with social media, the more they developed their nursing professional identity. Social media is a powerful tool that can benefit nursing students in many ways, including opening the gate on their path to becoming nurses.