OCCUPATION AND HEALTH ›› 2026, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (15): 2104-2109.

• Treatise—Epidemiology and Preventive Health Care • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Mediating role of professional identity of internal medicine nurses in nursing work environment and career success

LUO Xiaoming, XIONG Huifen, ZHOU Muting   

  1. Wuhan Orthopedic Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine(Affiliated Hospital of Wuhan Institute of Physical Education)WuhanHubei 430079, China
  • Received:2025-07-16 Revised:2025-10-10 Online:2026-08-01 Published:2026-07-16

Abstract:

Objective To understand the mediating role of professional identity of internal medicine nurses in nursing work environment and career success,in order to provide a reference for reducing the occupational burnout of internal medicine nurses and improving the level of clinical nursing work. Methods From April to May 2025,183 internal medicine nurses from 6 grade-A tertiary hospitals in Wuhan were selected as the survey subjects by convenience sampling. The nursing work environment scale,professional identity scale and career success scale were used to investigate them,and the data analyzed. Results The nursing work environment score of internal medicine nurses was (116.84±16.78)points,the professional identity score was (98.74±15.46)points,and the career success score was (112.86±18.56)points. The nursing work environment score of internal medicine nurses was compared in terms of age,years of clinical nursing work,professional and technical level,average monthly salary,monthly rotating night shifts,and marital status,and the differences were statistically significant(F=3.322,4.504,3.417,4.772,5.062,t=3.009,all P<0.05). The professional identity of internal medicine nurses was compared in terms of age,years of clinical nursing work,professional and technical level,average monthly salary,monthly rotating night shifts,and marital status,and the differences were statistically significant(F=3.603,3.739,4.203,3.498,4.228,t=2.550,all P<0.05). The career success scores of internal medicine nurses were compared in terms of age,years of clinical nursing work,professional and technical level,average monthly salary,monthly night shift,and marital status,and the differences were statistically significant(F=3.862,5.657,3.744,4.091,4.536,t=2.540, all P<0.05). The nursing work environment and professional identity of internal medicine nurses were positively correlated with career success(r=0.498,0.504,both P<0.01),and the nursing work environment was positively correlated with professional identity(r=0.572,P<0.01). Professional identity played a partial mediating effect between the nursing work environment and career success of internal medicine nurses,with an effect value of 0.307,accounting for 44.56% of the total effect. Conclusion The professional identity of 183 internal medicine nurses from six grade-A tertiary hospitals in Wuhan plays a partial mediating role between the nursing work environment and career success. Nursing managers can formulate comprehensive intervention measures to improve the career success of internal medicine nurses from the perspective of optimizing the nursing work environment and improving professional identity.

Key words: Internal medicine nurses, Nursing work environment, Professional identity, Career success, Mediating role, Influencing factors

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