AIM:The study aimed to explore how community mental health nurses (CMHNs) UK perceived their working lives. This was subdivided into questions related to: How do nurses perceive their professional status in terms of public image compared with their understanding of their working lives? How does the relationship between professional aspirations and experiences of working life affect their feelings about their work and their self image? 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 illuminating the quest undertaken by CMHNs to establish the legitimacy of their work, and achieve acknowledgment and appreciation. This underlies the search for professional identity in community mental health nursing.