With the gradual diversification of medical needs and increasing tasks, the modern medical environment is becoming increasingly complex, severe and unpredictable. Nurses are an indispensable part of the health care system, and are also recognized as high-demand and high-risk occupations[1], especially the nursing staff in intensive care unit (ICU). As we all know, ICU nurses are under high pressure and have a high turnover rate[2, 3]. Heavy shifts, long working hours, the responsibility of taking care of patients, witnessing human suffering and uncertainty have put nurses in intensive care unit under great pressure, resulting in a high resignation rate. A research analysis indicates that the turnover rate of nurses globally varies from 15–44%[4]. The issue of nurse scarcity and high turnover is global in scope[5], and it hinders the stability and growth of the nursing industry[6]. Due to the high level of professional knowledge of ICU nurses, their training cost is higher and it is more difficult to replace them[7].The high turnover rate of such groups has an impact on the quality and safety of patient care and serves as a roadblock to nursing development. Therefore, some researchers emphasize the need to understand what prompted nurses to continue to engage in this profession in such a challenging environment[8]. At present, the research is more and more interested in exploring the factors that affect nurses' career stability.
Career success is defined as "the accumulation of positive psychological feelings related to one's own career development and relative accomplishments"[9, 10]. It is a crucial metric for assessing one's own professional development[11]. A number of studies have demonstrated that the progress that nurses make in their careers is beneficial to the promotion of creative behavior among nurses, and that it also plays a significant effect in lowering the turnover rate and enhancing the quality of nursing services[12–14]. Robinson GF et al. demonstrate that when an individual succeeds in his career, he is able to work harder and experience the enjoyment that comes with it, which serves as a benchmark for the sector and makes people aspire for this employment[15]. Focusing on nurses' professional skills is important, but we should also consider their psychological pursuit if we want to foster top-notch nursing talent. Career success is one of the psychological mechanisms that affect nurses' career pursuit. Improving career success can not only improve personal happiness and satisfaction, but also foster greater work motivation, reduce job burnout and improve work attitude in their daily work, thus improving work efficiency and quality, achieving higher career success and forming a virtuous circle[16]. The success of a profession can be evaluated from two different views: objective viewpoints, such as rank position, compensation, promotion, and career prestige; and subjective perspectives, such as job satisfaction, development, and well-being[17]. Subjective career success is more important to nurses than objective career success[18], it can also promote their persistence in their careers. According to earlier research, clinical nurses' perceptions of their professional success in China are on the medium side[19], with room for improvement and a dearth of information regarding the success of ICU nurses. In light of this circumstance, it is vital to further identify the elements that influence ICU nurses' career success, as well as the interaction between them, so as to provide better career development support for nurses and help nurses achieve career success more effectively.
A sense of professional mission refers to a person's strong feelings and recognition of the profession he is engaged in, his belief that the profession he is engaged in can make life meaningful and the sense of meaning and value he experiences from the performance of his duties, so that he can work with passion and tenacious struggle to realize his self-worth and serve the society[20]. The "mission" of nurses is typically defined as unselfish dedication. Nurses with a strong professional mission feel more responsible for their patients' well-being and survival. They understand how important their job is to the patients, and this sense of duty and mission will immediately encourage nurses to actively participate in their work[21]. According to studies, a sense of professional mission can boost job satisfaction among nursing staff[22], promote personal career development[23],to reduce turnover intention[24–26]and job burnout[27–29]has a positive effect. ICU nurses' insistence on their career is more to follow their inner sense of mission and inner call. The existence of a sense of mission enables nurses to have a more positive psychological state, thus arousing their enthusiasm for career success. However, some studies show that although the sense of mission provides multi-dimensional benefits, it also poses great challenges[30]。The existence of a sense of mission makes people think that nurses enter this profession because they have this demand[31]so as to be disrespected by organizations and society[32]and low wages. Therefore, it is very important to explore nurses' sense of mission in a broad and fair way and realize its complex influence on nursing specialty.
Psychological resilience is defined as the ability to recover and "rebound" from adversity or major stressors, and it is a personal trait that can be cultivated[33]. The protective resource experience that nurses build throughout their careers to sustain psychological dynamic balance—a comprehensive psychological process of cognition, emotion, and behavior—is referred to as psychological resilience. In the face of difficulties and stress events, excellent psychological resilience can help individuals increase their ability to successfully deal, solve problems, and keep drive for career advancement. Enhancing the psychological resilience of nurses can lead to an increased sense of professional accomplishment for them.This is also a necessary way to decreasing nurse turnover,promote their career development and ultimately improve the quality of medical services. Resilience helps ICU nurses to cope with stress effectively, which is closely linked to their career success and is the most active and important contributor to nurses' job involvement[34]. The importance of nurses' psychological resilience to the advancement of nursing specialization has been emphasized more and more in recent years as a result of the study on this topic being continuously enhanced and deepened. Research indicates that nurses who have a stronger sense of their professional mission are more likely to feel that their work can help others and contribute to society, to recognize the significance and value of the nursing profession, to be more confident, to maintain clear goals, to look forward to the future, and to bounce back from setbacks more quickly. The psychological resilience of ICU nurses has an important influence on the smooth development of their career, and how to use it to improve the enthusiasm of nurses in their work is of great significance.Promoting ICU nurses' continuous pursuit of career development and success, improving their psychological resilience and helping them learn to create positive emotions with a positive attitude to cope with the pressure of work and life are important conditions for maintaining the sustained and healthy development of nurses' career.
Significance of the study and research gap
Career success is the goal that nurses strive to pursue. It is of great practical significance to explore the relationship between the three and put forward targeted suggestions to promote the career success of ICU nurses, so that they can better devote themselves to nursing patients and realize their personal and social values. Looking back at the existing research, it is evident that both psychological resilience and a sense of professional mission have a substantial positive influence on career success, but their joint impact on career success needs to be explored.
This study examines how a career mission impacts career success and explores the mediating function of psychological resilience. This paper talks about how psychological factors like psychological resilience and a sense of professional mission can affect professional successand puts forward targeted suggestions to improve nurses' negative state at work,put them in a more positive state at work, stimulate their sense of mission to realize their personal values, provide them with necessary and effective support, and help their professional healthy development.
Theoretical Framework and Hypothesis Formulation
The career success model from the perspective of mission[35]reveals that persons who have a strong mission are extremely clear about the goals they pursue on their road forward,and they will strive to pursue their own goals to achieve career success in the individual sense. Simultaneously, they will attain tangible career accomplishments, such as advancement, recognition, and enhancement of their skills. El-Gazar HE[1]has demonstrated that people have the perception that their career is a mission, and this perception is favorably associated to the success that they have in their career. At present, the body of research examining the correlation between psychological resilience and professional mission is relatively scarce. Liu [21] provides evidence supporting a positive correlation between the psychological resilience of nurses and their sense of professional mission. This suggests that as nurses' psychological resilience increases, so does the strength of their sense of professional mission. However, there is a wealth of research on the sense of professional mission and psychological capital, and a vast number of studies in related domains suggest that psychological resilience is a measurement indicator (sub-dimension) of psychological capital with reference value. Studies have shown that nurses' sense of professional mission can have a positive impact on their psychological capital. Today, researchs indicate that resilience helps nurses achieve professional success and satisfaction[36]. Some studies show that interventions to enhance psychological capital can improve nurses' sense of professional success.
H1: ICU nurses' sense of professional mission will be significantly and positively associated with career success
H2: ICU nurses' sense of professional mission will be significantly and positively associated with psychological resilience
H3: Psychological resilience of ICU nurses will mediate the association between professional mission and career success
Our proposed conceptual model demonstrates the correlation between psychological resilience, career success, and a sense of professional mission, as shown in Fig. 1.
Objective of the research
The study intended to explore how psychological resilience mediates the connection between a feeling of professional mission and career success among ICU nurses. The goal of our research are threefold. First, our goal will to assess the professional success of ICU nurses. Second, we aimed to determine the relationship betweenthe sense of professional mission among nurses, mental resilience and professional success. Thirdly, we intend to investigate how psychological resilience acts as a mediator in this relationship.