The mediating effect of structural empowerment on the relationship between nurse leadership and work engagement
Objective To explore the mediate role of structural empowerment between nurse leadership and work engagement.Methods From January to February 2023,a convenience sampling method was used to select 1 557 nurses from 3 tertiary grade-A general hospitals in He'nan Province as the research subjects,who were investigated by general information questionnaire,the Clinical Leadership Sur-vey,the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire-Ⅱ and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale.Results The total score of nurses'leadership,structural empowerment,and work engagement were(66.27±8.64),(70.38±15.67)and(61.90±10.80),respectively.Clinical nurse leadership was positively correlated with structural empowerment and work engagement and structural empowerment was positively corre-lated with work engagement(r1=0.510,r2=0.475,r3=0.651,P<0.01).Structural empowerment played a partial mediating role between nurse leadership and work engagement,accounting for 56.39% of the total effect.Conclusion The work engagement of clinical nurses is at an above-average level.Structural empowerment is an intermediary variable between nurse leadership and work engagement.Nursing managers should implement effective measures to cultivate clinical nurse leadership and create a supportive environment for structural empowerment,in order to enhance nurses'work engagement.