Background: Responsibility is an important component of the professional values and core competencies for bachelor degree nursing students and has relationships with nursing education and professionalization. It is important for providing safe and high-quality care to the clients for the present and future performance of student. But there is no clear and operational definition of this concept for bachelor degree nursing students; however, there are extensive contents and debates about the definitions, attributes, domains and boundaries of responsibility in nursing and non-nursing literature.
Objective: To examine the concept of responsibility among bachelor degree nursing students using the evolutionary approach to concept analysis.
Methods: A total of 75 articles published between 1990 and 2016 and related to the concept of responsibility were selected from seven databases and considered for concept analysis based on Rogers' evolutionary approach.
Ethical considerations: Throughout all stages of data collection, analysis and reporting, accuracy and bailment were respected.
Findings: Responsibility is a procedural, spectral, dynamic and complex concept. The attributes of the concept are smart thinking, appropriate managerial behaviours, appropriate communicational behaviours, situational self-mandatory and task-orientation behaviours. Personal, educational and professional factors lead to the emergence of the responsible behaviours among bachelor degree nursing students. The emergence of such behaviours facilitates the learning and education process, ensures nursing profession life and promotes clients and community health level. Responsibility has some effects on nursing students.
Discussion: This concept had been changed over time since 1990-2016. There are similarities and differences in the elements of this concept in disciplines of nursing and other educational disciplines.
Conclusion: The analysis of this concept can help to develop educational or managerial theories, design instruments for better identification and evaluation of responsible behaviours among bachelor degree nursing students, develop strategies for enhancing the responsibility and improve the safety and quality of nursing care in the community and healthcare system.
Keywords: Education; evolutionary concept analysis; nursing, nursing students; responsibility.