Moderating Role of Job Satisfaction on Organizational Climate and Professional Identity in Nurses: A Multicenter...

Organizational climate plays a key role in shaping nurses' professional identity, which is essential in mitigating postpandemic nursing shortages. However, whether job satisfaction moderates the association between organizational climate and professional identity remains underexplored in Chinese tertiary hospitals.

To explore the association between organizational climate and nurses' professional identity and to verify the moderating effect of job satisfaction on this relationship, grounded in the Job Demands-Resources framework and the Person-Environment Fit Theory.

This multicenter cross-sectional study recruited 580 nurses across five tertiary hospitals in Changsha, Hunan Province, between July and August 2025. Organizational climate, professional identity, and job satisfaction were assessed using the Nurse Organizational Climate Scale, the Nurse Professional Identity Rating Scale, and the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Short-Form), respectively. The moderation model was tested using Spearman's rank correlation and hierarchical linear regression.

Nurses exhibited a moderate level of professional identity, with a median score of 109.0 (IQR: 90.0-120.0). Organizational climate was positively correlated with professional identity (r = 0.681, p < 0.001), and such an association was positively moderated by job satisfaction (β = 0.086, p < 0.01). Specifically, the positive association between organizational climate and professional identity became stronger with increasing levels of job satisfaction.

The organizational climate is positively associated with professional identity, and job satisfaction moderates this relationship. Our findings carry significant implications for future interventions to improve nurses' professional identity, suggesting a dual-strategy approach that optimizes the objective organizational climate while simultaneously enhancing nurses' subjective job satisfaction.

Foster a supportive organizational climate (e.g., resource guarantee, shared decision-making, and transformational leadership) and systematically enhance job satisfaction (e.g., emotional support, professional supervision, and fair incentives). A dual-strategy approach targeting both the environment and subjective satisfaction is key to strengthening nurses' professional identity and addressing workforce shortages.