Career identity and career success among Chinese male nurses: The mediating role of work engagement

AIM: This study aimed to investigate the effect of career identity on career success among Chinese male nurses and to examine the mediating role of work engagement in this relationship. BACKGROUND: Recently, with the development of the nursing career, male nurses take up a higher share and play a more important role in the nursing team. With its own particularity and advantages, this group's stability closely relates to the future of the nursing team. Therefore, promoting the career success of the male nurses is essential to the nursing team development. METHODS: The data were collected in China. A sample of 557 male nurses completed measures of career identity, work engagement and career success scale. Structural equation model was adopted to verify the research hypotheses. RESULTS: Career identity was significantly and positively related to male nurses' work engagement and career success (p < .01). And work engagement partially mediated the association between career identity and career success. CONCLUSION: Career identity is critical to predicting and enhancing male nurses' career success. Work engagement plays an intervening mechanism explaining how career identity promotes career success among male nurses. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nursing management should minimize the impact of the traditional concept, implement the gender equality and provide moderate care for male nurses to facilitate balanced development of gender by upgrading the management system. The administrators should carry out skill training based on male nurses' features and the need of the department. Given full play to their respective advantages, male nurses will make great progress in professional development and achieve greater career identity and work engagement. Meanwhile, the further exploration of better incentive mechanism also makes sense in improving career identity and work engagement by the reform of performance appraisal mechanism and salary adjustment according to their ability.