Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42443066›Full record

ArticleJournal of nursing management2026

How Prosocial Motivation Is Related to Nurses' Taking Charge at Work: A Multiwave, Multisource Survey and Two Cross-Sectional, Cross-National Surveys.

Liping Zhou, Xiangyu Gao, Jessie Lin Wang, Shuji Pan, Tingting Chen, Yue Zhu, Jie Wang

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of nursing management, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Liping ZhouNursing Department, Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, zju.edu.cn.
Xiangyu GaoDepartment of Management, Faculty of Business, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China, ln.edu.hk.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6914-5952
Jessie Lin WangDepartment of Management, Faculty of Business, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China, ln.edu.hk.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0007-6929-9812
Shuji PanSchool of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China, zjgsu.edu.cn.ORCID https://orcid.org/0009-0008-9037-5557
Tingting ChenDepartment of Management, Faculty of Business, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China, ln.edu.hk.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4467-0244
Yue ZhuSchool of Business Administration, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China, zjgsu.edu.cn.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4617-7042
Jie WangNottingham University Business School China, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, China, nottingham.edu.cn.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3201-0129

Funding

Health Commission of Zhejiang Province 2023KY118
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundProsocial motivation drives nurses to help patients, yet contemporary healthcare also requires proactive, change-oriented behaviors such as taking charge. How prosocial motivation translates into taking charge remains poorly understood.

aimTo investigate how and why prosocial motivation is related to nurses' taking charge and how work overload moderates this process.

designStudy 1 employed a multiwave, multisource survey design. Studies 2 and 3 further tested the hypotheses using cross-sectional, cross-national designs.

methodsIn Study 1, data were collected in a general hospital in China at three time points (two weeks apart) from 275 nurses and their immediate supervisors. Studies 2 and 3 further utilized cross-sectional designs, recruiting 636 and 441 nurses, respectively, from multiple countries via Prolific. Descriptive analyses, confirmatory factor analyses, and mediation and moderated mediation analyses were performed.

resultsNurses' prosocial motivation was positively related to taking charge, mediated by general job reflective learning. Work overload moderated the positive association between prosocial motivation and reflective learning, and the indirect effect of prosocial motivation on taking charge via reflective learning was weaker under high work overload.

conclusionProsocial motivation was positively associated with nurses' general job reflective learning, which in turn related to their taking charge. This highlights that nurse proactivity is not merely a spontaneous act of goodwill but a deliberate, self-regulated process. Moreover, the positive association between prosocial motivation and reflective learning was weaker under high workload. This suggests that prosocial motivation alone may not translate into taking charge when nurses lack the necessary cognitive resources needed for self-regulated learning. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: This research provides a clear mandate for healthcare administrators: to harness the vast potential of their nursing workforce to advance patient care and organizational quality, organizations must not only cultivate prosocial motivation but also actively support reflective learning practice. Most critically, they must manage workloads to ensure nurses have the resources required to translate their prosocial motivation into effective action.

Indexed as

MotivationNursesAdultChinaCross-Sectional StudiesFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedSurveys and QuestionnairesWorkloadWorkplacegeneral job reflective learningnurseprosocial motivationtaking chargework overload

Identifiers

PMID42443066
PMCPMC13364538

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Registered trials

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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.