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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Med.
Sec. Healthcare Professions Education
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2024.1489383
This article is part of the Research Topic Burnout, Wellbeing and Resilience of Healthcare Workers in the Post-COVID World View all 10 articles

The mediating effect of clinical belongingness on the relationship between anxiety and professional identity in nursing interns: A crosssectional study

Provisionally accepted
Junhao Zhang Junhao Zhang 1Lijia Wang Lijia Wang 1Xue Yang Xue Yang 1*Yuwei Yang Yuwei Yang 2*Xuehua Wu Xuehua Wu 3*Guirong Li Guirong Li 2*Huaping Huang Huaping Huang 2*
  • 1 School of Nursing, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China
  • 2 Mianyang Central Hospital, Mianyang, China
  • 3 School of Nursing, Sichuan college of traditional chinese medicine, Mianyang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Previous studies have reported that anxiety negatively affects professional identity (PI), and clinical belongingness is positively correlated with PI among nursing interns. However, little is known about the relationship between anxiety, PI, and clinical belongingness among nursing interns.Objective: To explore the relationship between PI, clinical belongingness, and anxiety among nursing interns, and to demonstrate the mediating role of clinical belongingness in this relationship.Methods A cross-sectional study using an online questionnaire was conducted between November 2023 and January 2024 among 1,050 nursing interns from 26 teaching hospitals in Sichuan Province, China. A general information questionnaire, the Belongingness Scale-Clinical Placement Experience (BES-CPE), the Self-rated Anxiety Scale (SAS), and the Professional Identity Questionnaire for Nursing Students (PIQNS) were used to collect data. SPSS (version 25.0) and AMOS (version 28.0) were used to analyze the data.Results: Nursing interns had moderate mean scores for all variables; PI (60.77 ± 12.18), clinical belongingness (115.99 ± 17.02), and anxiety (47.44 ± 8.75). Correlation analyses revealed that both PI (r=-0.129, p<0.01) and clinical belongingness (r=-0.087, p<0.01) were negatively correlated with anxiety and clinical belongingness was positively correlated with PI (r=0.601, p<0.01). The clinical belongingness of nursing interns had a mediating effect on the relationship between anxiety and PI (  =-0.072, 95% confidence interval=-0.133 to -0.013, p<0.001), accounting for 40% of the total effect.The anxiety level of nursing interns can have a direct impact on the prediction of PI and an indirect influence on PI mediated by clinical belongingness. Accordingly, nursing educators and managers should screen and channel the mental health problems of nursing interns in a timely manner, improving their clinical belonging, which will help improve PI and ultimately improve the stability of the nursing workforce.

    Keywords: anxiety1, clinical belongingness2, Professional identity3, mediating effect4, nursing interns5

    Received: 04 Oct 2024; Accepted: 24 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Wang, Yang, Yang, Wu, Li and Huang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Xue Yang, School of Nursing, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu, 610500, Sichuan Province, China
    Yuwei Yang, Mianyang Central Hospital, Mianyang, China
    Xuehua Wu, School of Nursing, Sichuan college of traditional chinese medicine, Mianyang, China
    Guirong Li, Mianyang Central Hospital, Mianyang, China
    Huaping Huang, Mianyang Central Hospital, Mianyang, China

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