Understanding and barriers of professional identity formation among current students and recent graduates in nursing and midwifery in low resource settings in two universities: a qualitative study.

"Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participateAll methods were carried out according to the relevant guidelines and regulations of the Declaration of Helsinki (DoH-Oct2008). Before data collection, ethical approval was obtained from Makerere University College of Health Sciences, the School of Health Sciences Institutional Review Board (IRB) (MAKSHSREC 2022 − 415), and the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST)(HS2712ES). Administrative clearances were obtained from the hospitals’ and Universities’ administrations where we conducted the study. Informed consent was obtained from the participants. The research team informed the participants at all levels about the research and requested their voluntary participation. All respondents were assured confidentiality concerning the matters under discussion as the interviews were conducted in special rooms. Audiotapes and notes didn’t contain participants’ identifiers and were kept in a locked file cabinet when not used. Consent for publicationNot Applicable. Competing interestsNo competing interests. Competing interests No competing interests."

"Funding This work was supported by the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health under the Grant No. 1R25TW011217-01 African Association of Health Professions Education and Research."