Relationships Between Perceived Organizational Support, Psychological Capital and Work Engagement Among Chinese Infection Control Nurses

BACKGROUND: Few studies have focused on the work engagement of infection control nurses (ICNs). The perceived organizational support (POS) and psychological capital (PsyCap) might be important factors influencing ICNs’ work engagement. Moreover, PsyCap might play a mediating role in the relationship between POS and work engagement. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to clarify the relationships among POS, PsyCap and work engagement of Chinese ICNs. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was performed to collect data on 7382 ICNs from 20 provinces in China. Data collection was conducted by an online questionnaire, including questions about demographics, the Chinese version of the Utrecht work engagement scale (UWES), the Chinese version of the psychological capital questionnaire (PCQ) and the perceived organizational support scale for medical staff. Univariate analysis, the Spearman correlation method and the mediating effect test were conducted. RESULTS: The work engagement was at a relatively high level, with a total score of 80.87 ± 14.95. The total scores of POS and PsyCap scale were 41.45 ± 7.37 and 89.14 ± 9.06 respectively, both of which were at the upper-middle level. Work engagement was positively associated with both POS and PsyCap (both P<0.01). Furthermore, the mediating effect of PsyCap on the relationship between POS and work engagement was 0.394, the total effect was 0.443, and the ratio of mediating effect to total effect was 88.94%. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that both POS and PsyCap can directly increase the work engagement of the Chinese ICNs. Besides, POS can indirectly improve work engagement, partially through PsyCap. Therefore, enhancing POS and PsyCap could be effective in improving the work engagement of ICNs.