AIM: To investigate the mediating role of psychological capital in the relationship between nurses' caring behaviour and work engagement. DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHODS: From February to March 2022, an online survey was conducted to 698 nurses from eight hospitals in Anhui Province, China. The survey included the Psychological Capital Questionnaire, Caring Behaviour Inventory and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The mediating effect of psychological capital on the relationship between caring behaviours and work engagement was examined using structural equation modelling with bootstrap testing. RESULTS: Nurses' caring behaviour, psychological capital and work engagement were statistically significantly and positively associated with each other (r = 0.589-0.661, p < 0.01). Psychological capital showed a significant indirect effect in the association between nurses' caring behaviours and work engagement (β = 0.205, p < 0.001), accounting for 50.25% of the total effect. CONCLUSION: Results suggest that nursing managers can enhance nurses' work engagement by improving their psychological capital and caring behaviour. As a result, clinical nursing managers should implement effective strategies, such as providing training in psychological capital and caring behaviour, to enhance nurses' work engagement and improve the quality of care for patients. IMPACT: This study explores the mechanism of the role of psychological capital between caring behaviour and nurses' work engagement, providing a theoretical basis for nursing managers to improve nurses' work engagement from the perspective of positive psychology. It is conducive to improving the quality of nursing care. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.
Tian et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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