Effects of nursing professionalism and self-efficacy on job embeddedness in nurses

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate the effects of nursing professionalism on job embeddedness to stay in hospital nurses. METHODS: This cross-sectional survey recruited 438 nurses working at four general hospitals and three small to medium hospitals in K province, South Korea. Data were collected from June 10 to September 10, 2022 using structured questionnaires and then analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 25.0. RESULTS: The scores, out of 5.0, were 3.30 for nursing professionalism, 3.73 for self-efficacy, and 3.15 for job embeddedness. The three variables were different according to participants’ general characteristics. The correlation between self-efficacy and nursing professionalism had a positive correlation to job embeddedness. Nursing professionalism had a mediating effect on the relation between self-efficacy and job embeddedness. Self-efficacy exerted an influence on organizational commitment through the mediating effect of nursing professionalism and is expected to lay the foundation for the promotion of job embeddedness. CONCLUSION: To increase nurses' job embeddedness, nursing and hospital managers must develop and implement programs that help improve nurses’ self-efficacy and nursing professionalism to adjust well in their organization.