From Resilience Gap to Recovery: A Longitudinal Study of Nurse Job Satisfaction, Seniority, and Managerial Interventions in the Postpandemic Era

AIM: The COVID-19 pandemic has exerted a profound and enduring impact on nurse job satisfaction. Guided by the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study aimed to examine (1) longitudinal differences in job satisfaction trajectories across seniority levels, conceptualized as a "Resilience Gap" driven by dynamic resource depletion, and (2) the emergence of recovery following an adaptive institutional response. DESIGN AND METHODS: A 5-year longitudinal observational design was employed using nine waves of panel data (2020-2025) from 2162 nurses (8009 observations) at a large Taiwanese medical center. Linear mixed-effects modeling was applied to estimate within-person changes and between-group differences over time. In early 2024, nursing leadership implemented a set of generation-sensitive, hospital-wide managerial interventions, including structured mentorship, empowerment forums, and autonomous e-rostering. The 2025 outcomes were interpreted descriptively within a noncausal framework. RESULTS: From 2020 to 2024, a distinct "Resilience Gap" emerged, with job satisfaction among junior and midcareer nurses declining significantly faster than that of senior nurses. This disparity widened progressively during the prolonged "coexistence phase" of the pandemic. In the final observation period (2025), an observable rebound in job satisfaction was identified among less experienced nurses. This descriptive inflection, while temporally aligned with the implementation of managerial interventions, does not imply causal attribution. CONCLUSION: The findings conceptualize resilience as a dynamic regulatory capacity within the JD-R framework, reflecting the ongoing balance between job demands and available resources. The observed recovery suggests that proactive, generation-sensitive managerial strategies may be associated with mitigating prolonged occupational strain although causal inference cannot be established within the present design. IMPACT: This study introduces the "Resilience Gap" as a longitudinal diagnostic construct for workforce monitoring and provides a theoretically grounded, data-informed foundation for developing adaptive management strategies. The findings highlight the importance of continuous resource alignment, multisource monitoring, and empathetic leadership in sustaining a resilient, multigenerational nursing workforce.