The Relationship Between Cognitive Flexibility and Career Adaptability in Nursing Interns: The Mediating Role of Future Work Self-Salience

BACKGROUND: Nursing interns are the next generation of nurses, and their employment status affects nursing team stability. Interns often face career development difficulties and attrition. Cognitive flexibility may help students adapt to the workplace and clarify their work self-definition, and future work self-salience may relate to career adaptability. However, these relationships are unclear in the Chinese context. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore the mediating effect of future work self-salience between cognitive flexibility and career adaptability among nursing students during their internship. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional study design with convenience sampling, nursing interns from a tertiary general hospital in Nanjing, China, were selected between November and December 2024. Data were collected using a general information questionnaire, the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI), the Future Work Self-Salience Scale (FWSS), and the Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS). Of 201 questionnaires distributed, 195 were valid (97.0%). Descriptive statistics, Spearman's correlation, and structural equation modeling were used to test the mediating effect. RESULTS: The CFI, FWSS, and CAAS scores were 68.74 ± 10.22, 13.45 ± 2.91, and 91.97 ± 16.58, respectively. Cognitive flexibility positively predicted career adaptability, and future work self-salience played a partial mediating role (mediation effect: 20.92%). CONCLUSION: Cognitive flexibility is directly associated with nursing interns' career adaptability and also is indirectly associated through future work self-salience. Nursing educators may enhance interns' career adaptability by fostering both cognitive flexibility and future work self-salience.