Beyond the shift: happiness, resilience, and life satisfaction among nurses in Saudi Arabia

Nursing is a physically and emotionally demanding profession that requires effective psychological adaptation to workplace challenges. Resilience, happiness, and life satisfaction are important indicators of nurses’ well-being; however, evidence examining these constructs concurrently remains limited, particularly in Saudi Arabia. This study examined the relationships among resilience, happiness, and life satisfaction and explored their associations with selected demographic and professional characteristics among nurses. A descriptive correlational cross-sectional study was conducted among 238 nurses working in a tertiary hospital in Saudi Arabia. Data were collected using the BRS, OHQ-SF, and SWLS. Because the outcome variables were not normally distributed, Spearman’s rank-order correlation, Mann–Whitney U, Kruskal–Wallis H, and Dunn–Bonferroni post hoc tests were used for statistical analyses. Participants reported moderate levels of happiness and life satisfaction and relatively high perceived resilience. Resilience demonstrated a moderate positive correlation with happiness ( r s = 0.463, p < .001), whereas happiness showed a weak positive correlation with life satisfaction ( r s = 0.145, p = .026). No significant correlation was observed between resilience and life satisfaction ( r s = 0.111, p = .088). In exploratory, unadjusted analyses, resilience differed by gender, marital status ( p = .044), nationality, years of nursing experience, and shift type, while happiness differed by gender and years of nursing experience. Life satisfaction differed according to educational qualification and employment type. Nurses reported relatively high perceived resilience alongside moderate happiness and life satisfaction. Resilience was moderately associated with happiness but not with life satisfaction. Healthcare organizations should implement comprehensive well-being initiatives, while future longitudinal multicentre studies are needed to clarify these associations and evaluate effective interventions.