Understanding the impostor phenomenon in graduate nursing students

Judith Marlene Scanlan; Francine Laurencelle; James Plohman

doi:10.1515/ijnes-2022-0058

Article

Understanding the impostor phenomenon in graduate nursing students

Judith Marlene Scanlan , Francine Laurencelle and James Plohman

Published/Copyright: December 7, 2023

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From the journal International Journal of Nursing Education Scholarship Volume 20 Issue 1

Abstract

Intuitively, nurse educators know that graduate students in both master’s and doctoral programs question their ability to succeed. The impostor phenomenon (IP) is an internalized sense of inadequacy and fear of being seen as a fraud in the presence of external indicators of authentic achievement, and experienced by high achieving, successful individuals. Fifty-three percent (49/93) of graduate students completed the CIPS survey, and 11 master’s (regular streams & nurse practitioner) and two doctoral students participated in focus group interviews. The quantitative results showed that 88 % of participants experienced moderate to intense impostor phenomenon. Two themes emerged in the qualitative analysis: (i) experiencing the imposter phenomenon and (ii) managing feeling like an impostor. Descriptions of IP were similar across the three groups of participants. This research provides a foundational understanding of how IP is experienced by graduate nursing students.

Keywords: impostor phenomenon; graduate nursing students; nursing education; recruitment and retention

Corresponding author: Judith Marlene Scanlan, College of Nursing, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Helen Glass Centre for Nursing, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada, E-mail: judith.scanlan@umanitoba.ca

Funding source: College of Nursing Endowment Fund – Professional Foundations Grant

Award Identifier / Grant number: 322092-3460000-2000

Research ethics: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised 2013) Research Ethics Board 1, University of Manitoba #HS22780 (E2019.033).
Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
Competing interests: Authors state no conflict of interest.
Research funding: This work was supported by College of Nursing Endowment Fund Research Grant in Professional Foundations (322092-3460000-2000).
Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.

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Received: 2022-06-02

Accepted: 2023-10-23

Published Online: 2023-12-07

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ijnes-2022-0058

Keywords for this article

impostor phenomenon; graduate nursing students; nursing education; recruitment and retention