Relationships between professional mission, work engagement, spiritual climate, and job performance among Chinese clinical nurses: A moderated mediation model.

BACKGROUND: With the global socio-economic development, health concerns are increasing, prompting healthcare professionals to provide higher quality healthcare services. Job performance is a behavior related to performance and competence and reflects nurses' efficiency, quality, creativity, and goal accomplishment at work. A high level of job performance is essential for nurses, patients, and organizations. However, the overall level of nurses' job performance is low due to several factors. This study aimed to investigate the role of clinical nurses' sense of professional mission as a direct influence on job performance, as well as the mediating role of work engagement and the moderating role of spiritual climate. METHODS: From February 2024 to March 2024, 15 tertiary hospitals and ten secondary hospitals in Sichuan Province were selected as survey respondents for clinical nurses using convenience sampling. The Professional Mission Scale, Work Engagement Scale, Spiritual Climate Scale, and Job Performance Scale were used for data collection. Model 4 and Model 7 in the SPSS 26.0 macro program were used for mediation and mediation effect analysis with moderation. RESULTS: The results showed that sense of professional mission, work engagement, and spiritual climate were significantly and positively correlated with job performance (P < 0.01). Work engagement partially mediates the relationship between professional mission and work performance. Specifically, professional mission can directly influence work performance or indirectly affect it through the mediating role of work engagement. The mediating effect accounts for 29.6% of the total effect. Meanwhile, spiritual climate buffered the positive impact of a sense of professional mission on work engagement and played a moderating role in the first half path of the mediation effect model of a sense of professional mission affecting work performance through work engagement. CONCLUSION: This study further understood the current status of clinical nurses' job performance in China and confirmed that a sense of professional mission positively predicted job performance. Work engagement and spiritual climate further explained the relationship between a sense of professional mission and job performance through mediating and moderating effects. Nursing managers can improve the impact of a sense of professional mission on job performance by increasing spiritual climate and clinical nurses' work engagement.