Self-efficacy mediates the effect of professional identity on learning engagement for nursing students in higher vocational colleges: A cross-sectional study

Background: Learning engagement is a crucial predictor of academic achievement. It is essential to understand the factors influencing learning engagement among nursing students, especially from the learner's perspective, which is notably scarce but vital for designing effective educational interventions. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the mediating effect of self-efficacy on the relationship between professional identity and learning engagement for nursing students in higher vocational colleges. Design: A cross-sectional electronic survey was conducted. Setting: The study was conducted in four higher vocational colleges located in Guangdong Province, China. Participants: A total of 944 first- and second-year nursing students participated in the study between October and November 2022. Methods: Data were collected with questionnaires on general information, professional identity, self-efficacy, and learning engagement and analyzed with SPSS 26.0 and PROCESS v4.1 (Model 4), exploring relationships among professional identity, self-efficacy, and learning engagement through Pearson correlations, multivariate regression, and mediation analysis with 5000 bootstrap samples. Results: The participants exhibited moderate levels of professional identity (85.37 +/- 13.52), self-efficacy (25.58 +/- 5.74), and learning engagement (71.26 +/- 16.17), which were all significantly correlated with each other (P < 0.01). In the model of the mediating effect, professional identity directly (beta = 0.811, t = 27.484, P < 0.001) and indirectly [beta = 0.112,95%CI (0.074-0.154)] significantly predicts college students' learning engagement; professional identity has a significant positive predictive effect on self-efficacy (beta = 0.182, t = 14.459, P < 0.001) and self-efficacy significantly predicts learning engagement (beta = 0.614, t = 8.292, P < 0.001). Furthermore, the direct effect of professional identity on learning engagement (0.699) and its mediating effect (0.112) account for 86.19 % and 13.81 % of the total effect (0.811), respectively. Conclusion: Participants exhibited moderate levels of professional identity, self-efficacy, and learning engagement. Professional identity and self-efficacy are interconnected and positively correlated, influencing learning engagement among nursing students, which highlights the need to foster these qualities to enhance education and future practice.