To investigate the association among presenteeism, emotional intelligence, and professional identity among higher vocational nursing interns and the mediating role of emotional intelligence between presenteeism and professional identity, and to provide a basis for clinical intervention.

A questionnaire survey was conducted among 308 higher vocational nursing interns using the general information questionnaire, Wong Law emotional intelligence scale (WLEIS), the Stanford presenteeism scale-6 (SPS-6), and professional identity questionnaire for nurse students (PIQNS). SPSS 22.0 was used for related analyses including descriptive analysis and Pearson correlation analysis, and the mediating role of emotional intelligence was examined based on the Bootstrap method.

The higher vocational nursing interns had a total score of (80.57±15.52) for emotional intelligence, (15.91±4.40) for presenteeism, and (64.93±12.83) for professional identity. The Pearson correlation analysis showed that emotional intelligence was positively correlated with professional identity (r=0.712, P<0.001), and there was a negative correlation between any two of presenteeism, emotional intelligence, and professional identity (r=-0.282 to -0.256, all P<0.001). The analysis of mediating effect showed that emotional intelligence played a partial mediating role between presenteeism and professional identity and had a mediating effect of -0.512, accounting for 62.14% of the total effect.

Emotional intelligence is a mediating factor between presenteeism and professional identity among higher vocational nursing interns, and emotional intelligence can improve their presenteeism and professional identity.

Higher vocational nursing student; Clinical internship; Emotional intelligence; Presenteeism; Professional identity; Mediating factor