ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To investigate nursing professionalism as a mediating factor in the relationship between resilience and job stress levels for nurses working in long-term care hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from January to March 2021 in seven long-term care hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area to measure resilience, nursing professionalism, and job stress among nurses. Simple and multiple regression analyses along with the Sobel test were performed to verify the mediating effect of nursing professionalism. RESULTS: Data from 200 nurses were included in the final analysis. Results showed that individual and occupational characteristics could lead to differences in nurses' resilience, job stress levels, and nursing professionalism. Nursing professionalism had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between resilience and job stress levels. The effect of resilience on job stress levels was significant (ß = -0.16, p = 0.024). After controlling for nursing professionalism, the effect declined and was not statistically significant (ß = -0.09, p = 0.251). CONCLUSION: There is a need to increase individual resilience and nursing professionalism through intervention programs and policy proposals to manage job stress among long-term care hospital nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic.