Panacea for improving mental health: the influential roles of social capital, resilience and job embeddedness on nurses' mental health.

Abstract

Background: Given the high demands and stressors associated with the profession, mental health issues among nurses have become a growing concern. Nurses frequently encounter a combination of emotional, physical, and mental challenges that contribute to burnout, anxiety, depression, and other mental-health problems. Limited research has addressed the endogenous and exogenous precipitating factors that influence mental health among healthcare professionals, particularly nurses, in the healthcare sector. However, addressing mental health concerns among nurses is crucial for their well-being and the quality of care they provide. This study investigated the influence of social capital, resilience, and job embeddedness on positive mental health among nurses.

Methods: This study employed a cross-sectional design, involving 613 nurses aged 29-55 years (M = 34.78, SD = 6.52) recruited through snowball sampling from government-owned hospitals in Southeast Nigeria. Data were collected via an online survey utilizing standardized measures, including the Personal Social Capital Scale, Brief Resilience Scale, Global Job Embeddedness Scale, and Positive Mental Health Scale. Hierarchical multiple regression was used for the data analysis. The STROBE checklist guidelines were used to ensure quality and transparency.

Results: Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses. Results revealed that Social capital (β = .27; t = 2.29, p < .05), resilience (β = .30; t = 4.40, p < .05), and job embeddedness (β = .21; t = 3.37, p < .05) were independently and positively correlated with positive mental health among the nurses.

Conclusions: The study findings revealed that social capital, resilience, and job embeddedness are recipes for enhancing and harnessing positive mental health among nurses. The findings of this study underscore the intricate interplay between these endogenous and exogenous factors-job embeddedness, social capital, and resilience-in promoting mental health among nurses in their organizational context. These factors emerge as critical elements that facilitate employees' capacity to navigate workplace challenges and mitigate stressors that may affect their mental wellbeing.