Correlation between professional resilience, self-efficacy, coping style, and empowering leadership among emergency nurses: a multi-center study

BACKGROUND: Emergency nurses typically bear greater work-related stress, and high levels of professional resilience can help them better cope with such pressures while safeguarding their physical and mental well-being. This study aims to assess the current state of professional resilience among emergency nurses and explore the relationship between self-efficacy, coping style, empowering leadership, and professional resilience. METHODS: This study surveyed 650 emergency nurses from 20 hospitals in Sichuan, China, between October and November 2024. The following instruments were used to assess the current status of emergency nurses: the General Demographic Information Questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Emergency Nurses' Professional Resilience Tool (ENPRT-C), the Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), the Leadership Empowerment Behavior Scale (LEBS), and the Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ). Pearson correlation analysis, univariate analysis, and multiple stepwise linear regression analysis were employed to explore the relationships between emergency nurses' professional resilience and various influencing factors, including age, educational levels, professional title, workplace violence experience, self-efficacy, empowering leadership, and coping styles. RESULTS: Of 650 emergency nurses surveyed, 623 completed valid questionnaires. Emergency nurses' professional resilience scores averaged (113.05 ± 18.84). The scale dimensions ranked from highest to lowest scores were behavioral strategies, emotional and cognitive characteristics, external support, and professional competence. Correlation analysis revealed that emergency nurses' professional resilience positively correlated with self-efficacy, empowering leadership, and positive coping, while negatively correlating with negative coping. Univariate analysis indicated that age, educational levels, professional title, position, duration of employment in the hospital and emergency department, specialized nurse qualification, and exposure to workplace violence were factors influencing professional resilience. Multivariate stepwise linear regression analysis revealed that professional title, position, duration of employment in the hospital, duration of employment in the emergency department, specialized nurse qualification, workplace violence experience, self-efficacy (β = 0.402, P