Impact of self‐efficacy on the self‐leadership of nursing preceptors: The mediating effect of job embeddedness

Aim To test the impact of self‐efficacy and job embeddedness on self‐leadership among nursing preceptors. Background Self‐leadership refers to an idea and action strategy that employees use to influence themselves. Job embeddedness is the degree to which a member seeks to remain employed in an organization. Self‐leadership positively affects individual and team performance through self‐efficacy and job satisfaction. Nursing preceptors need strong self‐leadership to develop confidence in the role. Methods This is a cross‐sectional correlational study comprising 199 nursing preceptors with more than one year of preceptor experience at two general hospitals in Korea. Results Self‐efficacy had direct and indirect effects on self‐leadership, while job embeddedness had significant direct effects explaining 69.9% of self‐leadership. Conclusions A self‐efficacy improvement programme may enhance nursing preceptors’ self‐leadership. In addition, manpower management considering job satisfaction may contribute to preceptorship programmes through enhanced self‐leadership. Implications for Nursing Management The issues identified in this related to self‐leadership and human resource factors may be used to guide the efficient management of nurse preceptors. In particular, efforts to increase connectivity to the workplace and a sense of belonging are indicated to optimize job embeddedness given that embeddedness may promote positive self‐leadership behaviors in nursing preceptors.