Professional Identity in Nursing: Past, Present and Future
December 11, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (ET)
This webinar is hosted by AACN’s Faculty Leadership Network (FLN).
Webinar Details
We must highlight the importance of professional identity in nursing, as it is a concept that not all nursing faculty are familiar with despite accreditation requirements. Professional identity in nursing is defined as "a sense of oneself, and in relationship with others, that is influenced by characteristics, norms, and values of the nursing discipline, resulting in an individual thinking, acting, and feeling like a nurse." Our goal is for all nursing faculty to understand that what was previously referred to as professionalism has evolved and is now more accurately described as professional identity.
Outcomes:
- Examine the term professional identity from an interdisciplinary perspective.
- Discuss research findings that indicate a strong professional identity yields better patient outcomes.
- Describe strategies for faculty to build new knowledge about professional identity in nursing, in teaching, and leading.
Note: Recording of the webinar will be available soon after the webinar airs. Visit AACN's On-Demand Webinars to watch.
Speakers
Speakers
Mary Ann Siciliano McLaughlin, EdD, RN, ANEF
Clinical Associate Professor
Rutgers University
Dr. Siciliano McLaughlin is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Rutgers University - Camden School of Nursing. Dr. McLaughlin is an experienced nurse, educator, leader, author, clinical editor and consultant in nursing. She is passionate about developing and mentoring future and current professional nurses. She strives to positively contribute to the advancement of the nursing profession.
Dr. McLaughlin’s areas of experience and expertise include cardiac nursing, medical surgical nursing, education, publishing, NCLEX, disease management, telehealth, nursing management, professional identity, leadership, and ethics.
Dr. McLaughlin’s scholarship interests include publications and presentations related to cardiac nursing, medical surgical nursing, NCLEX, professionalism, and ethics. The main focus of her scholarship revolves around ethical practice in nursing. She has presented locally, nationally, and internationally relating to her scholarship on ethics and her model, the Siciliano-McLaughlin Model of Ethics.
Nelda Godfrey, PhD, ACNS-BC, RN, FAAN, ANEF
Professor, Professional Practice, and Director, Nursing Career Success, Identity and Innovation
Sinclair School of Nursing
University of Missouri
Nelda Godfrey is Professor, Professional Practice, and Director, Nursing Career Success, Identity and Innovation at the Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO. A thought leader in nursing innovation and nursing education, Dr. Godfrey writes often on new care delivery models that can be influenced by a stronger emphasis on the nurse within—researching and developing strategies to crea te the whole person experience in nursing practice going forward. Her work with the International Society for Professional Identity in Nursing is transforming the way nurses, health care professionals and society understand what it means to “think, act and feel like a nurse.” This work offers new language and new knowledge for the journey—helping nurses heal, flourish and expertly care for others.
Dr. Godfrey received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Missouri, her Masters in Nursing and credential as a Clinical Nurse Specialist from the University of Kansas Medical Center, and her PhD in Nursing with an emphasis in ethics from the University of Missouri. Scholarly accomplishments include seminal work in professional identity in nursing and implementing the AACN Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education. Programmatic achievements include creating the KU Community College Nursing Program in which community college students dually enroll in their community college and KU simultaneously, allowing them to graduate with an associate degree in nursing and a bachelor of science in nursing at the same time. Dr. Godfrey serves on the American Nurses Association Ethics and Human Rights Advisory Board and was formerly one of two co-leads for the Missouri Action Coalition supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
M. Lindell Joseph, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAONL
Clinical Professor and Director of the DNP & MSN in Health Systems: Administration/Executive Leadership Programs at the University of Iowa College of Nursing
University of Iowa College of Nursing
Dr. Lindell Joseph is passionate about advancing nursing leadership and innovativeness through thought leadership, research methods, and extensive publications. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Nurse Leader, the official journal of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, at the University of Iowa College of Nursing. From 2019-2024, Dr. Joseph served on the Advisory Council of the International Society for Professional Identity in Nursing. In that role, she co-led the development of th e Conceptual Model for Professional Identity in Nursing and chaired the Nurse as Leader Committee. An outcome of this committee is a position statement entitled “A Call for Dialogue to Advance the Concept of Nurses as Leaders within the Profession and the Public.” Dr. Joseph’s other areas of expertise are leadership effectiveness, innovativeness across academia and practice, and the General Effectiveness Multilevel Theory for Shared Governance. She has been called a proactive, “action-oriented theoretician.” Lastly, she recently co-edited the eighth edition of Leadership and Nursing Care Management.
Tags
Implementation of the Essentials in RN to BSN Programs
April 26, 2023
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM (ET)
Webinar Details
To align with the 2021 AACN Essentials, RN to BSN programs must prepare graduates to meet all entry-level (Level 1) competencies. These programs should be designed to build on previous learning and bridge educational gaps, ensuring that all new competency expectations are met. By the end of this presentation, led by James Madison University nurse educators Dr. Karen Jagiello and Dr. Jamie Robinson, faculty will gain a clearer understanding of how to implement the Essentials in a degree-completion program and deploy teaching strategies and methods to assess student competency.
Objectives:
- Discuss opportunities and challenges that are unique to RN to BSN degree completion programs
- Explore moving beyond a curriculum crosswalk toward course-level integration of the Essentials
- Explore approaches to integrating the Essentials and competency-based education into RN to BSN programs
Speakers
Speakers

Karen Jagiello, PhD, RN, CNE
Assistant Professor and Coordinator RN-BSN Program
James Madison University
Dr. Karen Jagiello is an Assistant Professor and the Coordinator of the RN-BSN Program at the James Madison University School of Nursing. She earned her PhD from West Virginia University and holds certification as a nurse educator. Dr. Jagiello has 42 years of experience in nursing, including 17 years in nursing education. Dr. Jagiello’s nursing career is centered on women’s health with a focus on marginalized persons seeking care, intimate partner violence, and gender-related power imbalances. She is committed to providing nursing education that focuses on inclusivity, and to that end, is assessing gaps in her school’s BSN curriculum. Dr. Jagiello teaches students in both traditional BSN and online RN to BSN programs. She is experienced in curriculum and instructional design, course development, and curriculum evaluation. She has 17 years of experience educating nurses returning to complete a BSN degree in face-to-face, hybrid, and virtual platforms. She is a Quality Matters Certified Peer Reviewer and course developer.

Jamie Robinson, PhD, RN, CNL
Associate Professor and Director for Undergraduate Programs
James Madison University
Dr. Jamie Robinson is an Associate Professor and the Associate Director for Undergraduate Programs at the James Madison University School of Nursing. She earned her PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University and holds certification as a Clinical Nurse Leader. Dr. Robinson has 25 years of experience in nursing, including 18 in nursing education. Dr. Robinson's nursing career has focused on serving rural communities. She is passionate about improving access to care in rural healthcare deserts by leveraging registered nurse expertise to bridge care gaps and assist with navigating complex healthcare systems. She is active in health policy, advocating at the state and federal level for policies that better serve rural communities. In nursing education, she teaches in the traditional BSN and online RN to BSN programs, both of which focus on entry-level nursing competency. She has extensive experience in curriculum design, evaluation and planning, course development, and instructional design. She has 10 years of experience teaching in the online RN to BSN program and is a Quality Matters Certified Peer Reviewer and course developer. She was a team member of the HRSA NEPQR-funded Undergraduate Primary Care and Rural Education (UPCARE) project, where her role was to develop curricula to support primary care and rural healthcare education and to create longitudinal rural clinical experiences for BSN students.