Values can refer to the ideals and beliefs of an individual or a group. They are the core elements that give rise to the diversity of human behaviour. Professional values can be used to assess beliefs and attitudes that influence professional behaviour (Altun, 2002, Lin et al., 2010) and are guidelines for action to which practitioners and professional groups primarily adhere. People can learn values directly or indirectly by observing how others behave (Weis & Schank, 2002). Understanding the nature of the nursing profession in clinical nursing practice facilitates the internalization of professional nursing values by nurses. Nursing professional values are the foundation of nursing practice, which determine the ethical development of nurses and guide nursing behaviour (Schank & Weis, 2000).

In the 19th century, Florence Nightingale argued that nursing should be a value-based profession, not just a scientific knowledge and skill (Alfred et al., 2013). In a globalised health care environment, nurses with professional values are empowered to make nursing decisions and resolve nurse-patient conflicts based on importance and ethical priorities (Iacobucci et al., 2013, Martin et al., 2003).

Therefore, it is crucial to clarify the connotation of nursing professional values and accurately assess the level of nursing professional values among nurses and nursing students. The current method for measuring nursing professional values relies on the self-rated likert Scale. However, this scale merely reflects the perceptions of professional values held by nurses and nursing students, rather than providing an indication of their actual level of professional values. Intermediate conceptual measurement, rooted in the Neo-Kohlberg theory, offers a method of moral judgment. It uses abstract concepts of values derived from stories and evaluates the level of values based on the actions and reasons presented in the stories. This study focuses on the following research questions: What are the meanings of nursing professional values under the definition of intermediate conceptual measurement? How can an intermediate conceptual measurement instrument of nursing professional values be developed based on the Neo-Kohlberg theory? Does the developed intermediate conceptual measurement instrument of nursing professional values have stable reliability and validity?