Relationship between sense of coherence, health status, and work engagement among nurses.

To examine the sense of coherence (SOC) among registered nurses and its relationship with health and work engagement.SOC is a global orientation to view life as structured, manageable, and meaningful and have the capacity to cope with stressful situations. A high SOC score indicates that an individual can understand, manage, and attribute meaning to events in his or her life as well as in the work environment. Registered nurses face many workplace stressors that may be easier to manage with a strong SOC; however, the effect of this score on their self-reported health status and work engagement remains unknown.In a cross-sectional study, 109 registered nurses working in a long-term care setting responded to a self-administered questionnaire. Social support, work-related family conflicts, SOC, self-reported health status, and work engagement variables were analysed using multiple linear regression models.Nurses with a high SOC score reported no work-related family conflicts (mean difference -6.91; 95% CI -10.65 to -3.18; p = 0.000), better health (r =0.408), and greater work engagement (r =0.223), compared to their peers with lower SOC. The association between SOC and self-reported health was confirmed by linear regression modelling (β = 0.276, p = 0.003).Nurses with a higher SOC had better health and greater work engagement. The work engagement variable showing the highest association with SOC was dedication.Implementing interventions that increase SOC among nurses can increase commitment to their work, to the institution, and to building more engaged teams.