Relationships between organizational support, emotional intelligence and work engagement among Chinese nurses: A correlation study

Abstract

Abstract Aim To investigate and analyse the current situation of clinical nurses' sense of organisational support, emotional intelligence and work engagement in different departments and their correlation, in order to provide guidance for enhancing the sense of organisational support, improving nurses' emotional intelligence and mobilising nurses' work engagement and to promote the development of nursing teams. Methods Clinical nurses from three hospitals in eastern and western China were selected by convenience sampling method from September to October 2023 and were surveyed using a general information questionnaire, organisational support questionnaire, emotional intelligence scale and work engagement scale. We investigated the correlation between nurses' sense of organisational support, emotional intelligence and work engagement in clinical units. Results The clinical nurses investigated in this study had moderate levels of perceived organisational support and emotional intelligence and high levels of work engagement. The total score of the nurses' sense of organisational support questionnaire was positively correlated with the total score of the emotional intelligence scale, the total score of the work engagement scale and the scores of all dimensions (all p < 0.05). Emotional intelligence played a partial mediating effect in the effect of nurses' organisational support on work engagement, accounting for 35.57% of the total effect. Conclusion Clinical nurses' sense of organisational support was positively correlated with emotional intelligence and work engagement; there was a chain mediating effect of clinical nurses' emotional intelligence between sense of organisational support and work engagement. Organisational support can enhance the emotional intelligence of caregivers as well as promote work engagement. It is suggested that nursing managers can enhance the level of nurses' engagement by giving effective organisational support and at the same time improving nurses' perception of psychological safety.

Keywords

• emotional intelligence
• job engagement
• mediating effect
• nurses
• sense of organizational support