ArticleBMC nursing2026
Engaging leadership and nurses' mental health in German acute care hospitals: the mediating role of job resources.
Article in BMC nursing, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNurses in German acute care hospitals face high levels of work-related stress, including symptoms of burnout, depression, and anxiety. This study investigates whether engaging leadership is associated with burnout, depressive, and anxiety symptoms among nurses and whether these associations operate through job resources.
methodsA cross-sectional online survey was conducted among registered nurses working in acute care hospitals participating in the German branch of Magnet4Europe. Data collection took place between September and December 2023. Engaging leadership was measured with a validated twelve-item scale. Job resources included role clarity, skill use, autonomy, performance feedback and opportunities for development. Burnout symptoms were measured using the Burnout Assessment Tool. Depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with the PHQ-2 and GAD-2. The preregistered analysis used complete case analysis and structural equation modelling to test direct and indirect associations.
resultsIn total, 1,502 nurses from eighteen hospitals were included in the analysis. Engaging leadership was strongly associated with perceived job resources. Job resources were associated with lower burnout, depressive, and anxiety symptoms. Engaging leadership also showed small direct associations with burnout and depressive symptoms, but not with anxiety symptoms. Indirect effects were significant across all three models, suggesting that job resources may be an important mechanism linking engaging leadership to nurses' mental health.
conclusionsNurses who experience more engaging leadership also report more job resources and fewer symptoms of mental ill-health. These findings suggest that leadership practices which support meaning, competence, connection and autonomy may strengthen resilience and reduce psychological strain among nursing staff in Germany. Leadership development and resource strengthening may therefore represent important strategies for improving nurses' well-being and retention in German hospital settings.
trial registrationNot applicable. This cross-sectional secondary analysis was conducted within the Magnet4Europe project, which is registered in the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN10196901, registered on 10 April 2020).
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.