The impact of leadership of head nurses on the research performance of highly educated nurses in China: a moderated mediation model

Background Nursing leadership by head nurses is critical to enhancing nursing research activity and performance in hospitals but the impact mechanism is unclear. Aim To investigate the effect of nursing leadership of head nurses on research burnout, self-efficacy, and performance of highly-educated nurses in the hospital. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted and electronic questionnaires were distributed online. An online data analysis tool SPSSAU was adopted to conduct descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, and structural equation model construction. This study adhered to the STROBE guideline. Results A total of 1918 questionnaires were collected in this survey. The results indicated that nursing research leadership of head nurses (beta = 0.094, p < 0.001) could directly affect the research performance of highly-educated nurses or indirectly via research burnout (beta(1) = -0.287, p < 0.001, beta(2) = -0.071, p = 0.002). The indirect effect accounted for 12.74% of the total mediating effect. The research self-efficacy of highly-educated nurses was a moderator in the mediation model, and research leadership had no significant effect on research performance when the self-efficacy of nurses was low, while the direct effect [BM-SD = -0.041, CI(-0.098,0.017) vs B-M = 0.094, CI(0.051,0.138) vs BM+SD = 0.229, CI(0.171,0.287)] of research leadership and the inderct effect [BM-SD = -0.004, CI(-0.021,0.012) vs B-M = 0.010, CI(0.004,0.018) vs BM+SD = -0.031, CI(-0.051,-0.012)] of research burnout existed when the research self-efficacy was in mean and high level. Conclusions Research leadership of head nurses and self-efficacy of highly-educated nurses are crucial to enhancing nursing research performance in the hospitals.