Abstract
Nursing education is a comprehensive journey of development that goes far beyond technical skills, blending the student's ethical values and therapeutic communication skills with their professional identity. Innovative teaching models adopted during this process, such as short films, are crucial in helping students develop their professional identity. This research is a quasi-experimental study examining the changes in nursing students' therapeutic communication, holistic competence, and professional competency levels following a short film production process. The sample of the study consisted of 101 students. The "Student Information Form," "Therapeutic Communication Skills Scale for Nursing Students," "Holistic Nursing Competence Scale," and "The Competency Inventory of Nursing Students" were used as data collection tools. SPSS 26.0 was used for data analysis; in addition to descriptive statistics, the paired samples t-test was applied to measure changes. The internal consistency coefficients of the scales used in the study were above .80, indicating that the tools demonstrated high reliability in this sample group. Following the short film production process, significant increases were observed in students' Therapeutic Communication Skills Scale and The Competency Inventory of Nursing Students total scores (p < .001). The overall Holistic Nursing Competence Scale score did not show a statistically significant change; however, the Staff Education Management subscale showed a significant increase (p=.005). In conclusion, the short film production process appears to support students' professional identity development and awareness of therapeutic communication patterns.