Mediating Role of Self-Efficacy in Transition Shock and Presenteeism Among Nursing Students in China: A Cross-Sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Nursing students, as the reserve force of the nursing workforce, often experience transition shock during clinical internships, which negatively impacts their physical and mental health and may lead to presenteeism. Self-efficacy, a modifiable psychological resource, offers a key intervention target for improving this situation. OBJECTIVE: To examine self-efficacy's mediating role between transition shock and presenteeism in nursing students and to guide management. METHODS: This study adopted a descriptive cross-sectional design. A convenience sampling survey was conducted on 421 nursing students in Shenyang City, China. The questionnaire included demographic characteristics, the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES), the Transition Shock Scale for Undergraduate Nursing Students (UNSTS), and Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS-6). Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression were performed using IBM SPSS 27.0. The structural equation model was used to test the mediating effect hypothesis of self-efficacy between transition shock and presenteeism, and AMOS 28.0 was used to estimate the path coefficients and evaluate the model fit. RESULTS: The research found that the presenteeism, transition shock, and self-efficacy level of nursing students in Shenyang were all at a moderately high level. Transition shock showed statistically significant positive correlations with presenteeism (r = 0.646) and negative correlations with self-efficacy (r = -0.576), while self-efficacy was negatively correlated with presenteeism (r = -0.636). The SEM showed satisfactory model fit. The results indicated that self-efficacy played a partial mediating role between transition shock and presenteeism (effect = 0.212, [0.149.0.294], p < 0.001), accounting for 29.04% of the total effect (total effect = 0.73, [0.615.0.823], p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study has confirmed that self-efficacy plays a mediating role between the transition shock and presenteeism among nursing students in Shenyang City, China. IMPLICATION FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: This study offers nursing managers a new way to address presenteeism among nursing students and a reference for improving clinical internship quality and talent cultivation models.