Psychological Capital in School Nursing: Insights From a Mixed-Methods Study Integrating Interviews and Literature Review
Ada Parkkonen, Maija Satamo, Maritta VälimäkiIntroduction
Nurses’ well-being is critical for sustaining health-care systems, as workforce shortages and increasing demands threaten retention and care quality. School nurses work autonomously with broad preventive responsibilities, supporting children and adolescents. While occupational stressors in school nursing are well documented, less is known about the positive psychological resources that sustain well-being. Psychological capital (PsyCap), comprising hope, resilience, self-efficacy, and optimism, represents a developable resource that may support adaptive functioning in demanding preventive care settings.
Objective
This study explored how the components of PsyCap manifest in school nurses’ daily work, examined how quantitative nursing research presents them, and integrated findings from both sources to understand PsyCap’s role in school nursing.
Methods
A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews with four public health nurses working in school and student health services and analysed using thematic analysis. The quantitative component comprised a narrative literature review of 55 studies examining PsyCap components among nurses, with findings synthesised narratively. Data triangulation involved comparing findings from both sources within each PsyCap component using joint displays to develop integrated interpretations.
Results
Qualitative findings showed that hope was enacted as both a sustaining inner resource and a relational practice in student encounters. Resilience involved emotional boundary regulation. Self-efficacy reflected confidence in autonomous professional judgement, while optimism functioned as a pragmatic stance sustaining motivation. Across the quantitative literature, studies linked PsyCap components to favourable work-related outcomes, including higher job satisfaction and work engagement and lower stress, burnout, and turnover intention. Integrated findings suggested that PsyCap supports professional functioning under uncertainty through perseverance, self-regulation, confident action, and belief in positive change.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that PsyCap may support sustained engagement in school nursing through the interplay of individual psychological resources, everyday professional practice, and relational and organisational conditions.