Mediating effect of nurses'innovative self-efficacy and job engagement between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behaviors

WANG Xiaoli; CHEN Yushuang; WU Defang; ZHANG Meng; HE Xifei

doi:10.12102/j.issn.2095-8668.2025.18.013

Abstract：Objective: To explore the mediating effects of nurses' innovative self-efficacy and work engagement in the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior. Methods: A convenience sampling method was used to select 2,180 clinical registered nurses from six tertiary and secondary hospitals in Hubei, Jiangxi, and Henan provinces from September to December 2022. The study used general information questionnaires, the challenge-hindrance stressor scale, the innovative self-efficacy scale, the work engagement scale, and the nurse innovative behavior scale. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the mediating effects of innovative self-efficacy and work engagement in the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior. Results: Nurses' innovative self-efficacy played a partial mediating role between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior. The effect size of innovative self-efficacy between challenge stressors and innovative behavior was 0.101, with a mediating effect proportion of 45.09%. The effect size of innovative self-efficacy between hindrance stressors and innovative behavior was -0.213, with a mediating effect proportion of 55.47%. Work engagement also played a partial mediating role between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior. The effect size of work engagement between challenge stressors and innovative behavior was 0.015, with a mediating effect proportion of 6.70%. The effect size of work engagement between hindrance stressors and innovative behavior was -0.054, with a mediating effect proportion of 14.06%. Innovative self-efficacy and work engagement had a chain mediating effect between challenge stressors and innovative behavior, with a mediating effect proportion of 7.59%. They also had a chain mediating effect between hindrance stressors and innovative behavior, with a mediating effect proportion of 9.38%. Conclusion: Nurses' innovative self-efficacy and work engagement play a partial mediating role in the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative behavior. Medical staff can help nurses establish a sense of innovation, pay attention to their work engagement status in a timely manner, and encourage innovative behavior.