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AIM: The study aimed to explore how community mental health nurses (CMHNs) UK perceived their working lives. This was subdivided into questions related to: BACKGROUND: In a rapidly changing organizational context CMHNs face the challenge of achieving a coherent professional identity. METHOD: An interview study was conducted and analyzed using semi-structured interviews and a thematic analysis to identify categories and themes in 34 CMHN's accounts of their working lives. FINDINGS: The data were classified into four major themes: (i) The client focus: the public service identity of the profession; (ii) Not being a profession: skepticism, doubt and uncertainty; (iii) Growing out of the role: professional development as exit strategy; (iv) Waiting to be discovered: the search for recognition. CONCLUSIONS: The metaphor of nurses searching for recognition has demonstrated its usefulness as a means of …