This integrative article explored how nurse-researchers craft and negotiate researcher identity through reflexivity. Drawing on three reflexive narratives situated across distinct practice and career contexts, including academe and military nursing, this article synthesized how personal histories, professional roles, and methodological training intersect in order to shape how one becomes a researcher. Guided by Benner's novice-to-expert lens and contemporary discussions on positionality and reflexive practice, this article's synthesis surfaced recurring themes: identity-in-motion rather than identity-as-status; persistence and vulnerability as engines of growth; insider–outsider movements and the ethical responsibilities being invited; and methodological pluralism as a value stance that links rigor with relevance and care. The narratives also illuminated how institutional cultures, resource constraints, and role expectations contour opportunities for inquiry, while reflexive writing functions as both method and pedagogy, supporting integrity, accountability, and epistemic fluency. It was argued in this article that cultivating researcher identity in nursing requires spaces that normalize doubt, foreground values, and make visible the relational, moral, and political textures of knowledge production. Implications included embedding explicit reflexivity and positionality work in curricula, mentoring, and research supervision; recognizing mixed-methods and qualitative approaches as complementary pathways to impact and to align institutional supports with nurses' dual commitments for both practice and scholarship. In this article, the process of becoming a nurse-researcher had been shown to be a continual practice of courage, reflexivity, and commitment that is by doing it, and learning it, until nurse-researchers make it.

Human ; Research ; Nursing

BACKGROUND

Financial hardship is a defining reality for many nursing students in the Philippines. While nursing education is viewed as a path to family upliftment, the academic burden of sustaining clinical fees, requirements, and living expenses can be overwhelming.

This study explored the lived experiences of Filipino nursing students who face financial strain, while focusing on its sources such as emotional and psychological impacts, coping and survival strategies, and academic consequences.

A descriptive qualitative design was employed to capture rich, contextualized narratives from sixteen Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students enrolled at a state university in the Bicol Region. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and were analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke's six-phase approach. Trustworthiness was ensured through member checking, audit trails, and reflexive journaling.

Four themes emerged: (1) Sources of Financial Strain—family income instability, solo-parent dependency, family medical expenses, and multiple dependent siblings; (2) Emotional and Psychological Impacts—hopelessness, anxiety, and depression; (3) Coping and Survival Strategies—working while studying and sacrificing rest or self-care; and (4) Academic Consequences—difficulty focusing and fear of dropping out. These findings revealed a complex interplay of economic, emotional, and cultural factors that shape students' struggle to persist.

Financial strain among Filipino nursing students extends beyond economic limitation to encompass moral obligation, emotional fatigue, and academic compromise. Universities must provide holistic support—financial, psychosocial, and institutional—to ensure that nursing students not only survive but succeed.

This reflexivity paper explores the evolving identity of a nurse leader turned researcher, tracing a journey along “the road less travelled” in nursing. It examines how personal history, professional experiences, and sociocultural contexts shape the researcher's positionality and influence the pursuit of knowledge. Anchored in critical, feminist, and interpretivist paradigms, the paper underscores reflexivity as both an ethical stance and a transformative process that connects power, purpose, and praxis. Reflective practice bridges experience and empirical knowledge (Sherwood & Webb, 2024). Through self-analysis, the author illuminates how lived experiences, leadership practice, and gendered perspectives inform inquiry, ultimately advancing a vision of nursing research that is self-aware, socially responsive, and justice-oriented.

INTRODUCTION

For female nursing students in Vietnam, juggling work, school, and personal obligations can be especially difficult. Research on how these students develop resilience while juggling their multiple roles is still lacking, despite the fact that their numbers in nursing school are increasing. This study explores how the work-life-study balance (WLSB) of female students pursuing an Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program is shaped by their real-life experiences and sociocultural influences.

A qualitative research design informed by interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used in this study. In September 2024, ten carefully selected female nursing students participated in semi-structured interviews at a private university in Ho Chi Minh City. From October 2024 to February 2025, each 45–60 minute interview was subjected to a thematic analysis using Delve software.

The challenges faced by the participants, along with their support systems, coping strategies, and aspirations, were captured in four key themes, each with its own set of sub-themes. The first theme, Navigating Life's Crossroads: The Struggle for Balance, highlighted the students' struggles to manage competing demands, featuring subthemes, Pulled in All Directions, Time as a Scarce Commodity, and Compromises and Sacrifices. The second theme, Anchors in the Storm: Finding Strength in Support, emphasized the vital role of relational support, showcasing subthemes, Peer Solidarity and Shared Struggles, and Family as a Pillar of Strength. The third theme, Pathways to Resilience: Strategies for Survival, focused on coping strategies and adaptive techniques, incorporating subtheme, Faith and Inner Strength, Embracing the Role of a Working Learner, and Prioritizing and Organizing. Finally, the last theme, Purpose, Aspiration, and Future Orientation, brought attention to the participants' sources of motivation and their optimistic outlook, with subthemes, Motivation Rooted in Family and Self and Hope and Optimism as Sustaining Forces. These findings, grounded in the Transformative Resilience Model, illustrate how students harness their inner drive, familial and social responsibilities, and cultural values to adapt and thrive in the face of challenges. To maintain their dedication to education and uplift their families, participants leaned on hope, spiritual insights, and a sense of agency, viewing their struggles as meaningful experiences.

The experiences of Vietnamese female nursing students reveal a remarkable resilience shaped by both heavy social expectations and personal challenges. Drawing from the Transformative Resilience Model, this study highlights how facing and overcoming adversity can lead to significant identity development and personal growth. Institutional support plays a crucial role in enhancing a student's well-being, which can include flexible academic policies, accessible mental health services, and adaptable work-study options. Financial pressures, job-related stress, and academic demands often contribute to burnout. These findings underscore the urgent need for systemic, collaborative efforts to foster inclusive and sustainable learning environments for nursing students who are balancing work and study.

Human ; Education, Continuing ; Nursing Research

This reflective paper explored the philosophical foundations of lifelong learning and impactful research in the field of nursing. Anchored in personal experience and supported by scholarly literature, it illustrated the transformative power of continuous learning, the cultivation of research competence, and the moral responsibility of contributing meaningfully to society. A nurse researcher's journey is not defined by awards or accomplishment but by an unwavering dedication to knowledge creation, community involvement, and evidence-based practice. The "emptying one's cup" metaphor embodies intellectual humility, a mindset that keeps the mind open to learning, self-improvement, and meaningful service throughout one's career.

The philosophical basis of nursing research is simply about increasing our knowledge and addressing everyday challenges through reflective thinking. This article explored the fundamental principles that inform nursing research and stresses nurse researchers' vital role in meeting everyday challenges. By employing classic philosophical concepts and contemporary ways of knowing, this article explained how individual beliefs, conceptions about truth, and reflections on self had contributed to knowledge development. To put it plainly, this article is about the story of a nurse researcher and the illustration of how a nurse's philosophy impacts research and consequently contributes to the development of nursing science. Instead of regarding this process as a quest for the ultimate truth, this article recognized the evolving process of interacting with fluid knowledge to advance nursing practice and do well in society.

This essay laid out the development of a nurse's identity from clinical practitioner to developing researcher, with a focus on the importance of patient-centered and nurse-centered care as the cornerstone pillars of nursing research. Through narrative and application of qualitative and participatory research approaches, the author showed the intersection of everyday experience, philosophical inquiry, and scholarly pursuit along the path toward becoming a nurse researcher. The article examined how emotional experiences within the perioperative environment have instigated research questions aimed at improving patient and nurse well-being. Through the incorporation of academic models and theoretical perspectives, the author presented an emerging investment in health equity, social determinants of health, and collective inquiry, framing this individual path within the greater nursing science mission.

In this paper, I reflect on caring and witnessing through engaged ethnography of an urban poor community during the onset of the COVID19 pandemic. The urban poor are individuals and families who live below the poverty line in metropolitan areas, many of whom have little or no political voice and are insufficiently protected by social networks and other institutions. In March 2020, the government placed Metro Manila under Enhanced Community Quarantine to control the spread of COVID19. This left many an urban poor community in Metro Manila to struggle even more against an already precarious existence. By standard, nurses render different levels of care for urban poor clients in almost all health care settings. In public health nursing, we come in close contact to the realities of our clients when we see them in health centers, in the community, or whenever we do our home visits. Now, caring for vulnerable and marginalized groups such as the urban poor has changed due to minimum public health standards of wearing masks, physical distancing, handwashing, and enforcement of lockdowns. As a nurse, an academic, and as a student of anthropology, I came up for self-review while doing an article for a popular social news network derived from a virtually engaged ethnography. While this novel method requires you to see the world through the eyes of the “other,” and generates bioethical dialogue and awareness of personal biases in addressing ethical considerations and challenges, it gives voice and fulfills our roles as client advocates. In May 2020, the article was published with the urban poor organization and its partners as my coauthors. I borrowed from anthropology to arrive at a greater understanding of the socio-cultural effects and political implications of COVID19 to one of the most vulnerable nursing clientele – the urban poor.
Public Health Nursing ; Ethics, Research ; COVID-19