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The goal of this research was to gain an understanding of the process of professional socialization by accessing role meaning of students engaged in a BScN program. Students from each of the four years and faculty members from the school ofnursing volunteered as participants.

G. Kelly's (1955) Personal Construct Theory provided the framework to determine awareness and constructed meanings. A reflective tool, called Life Mapping, was adapted and utilized to relate student experiences within education that have attributed to nurse role meaning. Focus group interviews verified data interpretation.

Students are informed oftheir choice to study nursing through part-time and volunteer work, secondary school cooperative placements. Descriptions reveal that choices are tested and both positive and negative aspects ofthe role observed. Bipolar images of good and bad nurses seem to be context-related. These images may establish biases in choices related to learning experiences. The person inside ofeach aspiring nurse interprets, revises and understands experiences to incorporate individual meaning into their value and belief structures.

Students are aware ofchanges and descnbe them as developments that occur
personally up to Year III and role-image changes that begin in Year II. The major difficulty that students encountered was described as negative attitudes towards their anticipated role. Humanistic-interactionist philosophies are echoed in student accounts of learning experiences. Growth and role development corresponds to process factors of small group, problem-base learning.