Effect of Career Shocks on Nurses' Job Performance: Psychological Resilience as a Key Moderator.
Na Zhang1, Xiang Sun1, Xing Bu1
1School of Business, Beijing Information Science and Technology University, Beijing, China, bistu.edu.cn.
Journal of Nursing Management
|May 18, 2026
Summary
Career shocks impact nurses' job performance positively. Psychological resilience enhances positive career shocks but does not buffer negative ones, offering insights for nursing management.
Area of Science:
- Nursing Management
- Organizational Psychology
- Human Resources
Background:
- The digital era presents complex career shocks for nurses.
- Traditional studies focus on individual agency, overlooking environmental stressors like career shocks and their psychological impact on job performance.
Purpose of the Study:
- Examine the influence of positive and negative career shocks on nurses' job performance using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model.
- Investigate the moderating role of psychological resilience in these relationships.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional quantitative study with 385 nurses.
- Data collected via questionnaires.
- Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyzed relationships.
Main Results:
- Both positive and negative career shocks positively correlate with nurses' job performance.
- Psychological resilience significantly amplifies the positive impact of positive career shocks.
- Psychological resilience did not significantly moderate the effect of negative career shocks on job performance.
Conclusions:
- Career shocks significantly influence nurses' job performance through distinct pathways.
- Psychological resilience is a key factor in leveraging positive career shocks.
- Findings advance nursing management research by clarifying shock-performance mechanisms.
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