Abstract: Objective To explore the mediating effects of perceived social support between emergency response capacity ability and mental workload among nurses. Methods Convenience sampling was used to select 605 nurses from 5 general hospitals in Chengdu from May to December 2022 as respondents, and they were surveyed by using the NASA Task Load Index Scale, the Nurses’ Emergency Response Capacity for Public Health Emergency Scale, and the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The mediation model was constructed and tested. Results The mean score of entries of mental workload was 57.41±14.50; the total score of emergency response capacity ability 64.59±13.49, and that of perceived social support 58.60±15.77. Correlation analysis showed that the mean score of entries of mental workload was negatively correlated with the total score of emergency response capacity ability and that of perceived social support (r=-0.356、-0.341; all P<0.01). Perceived social support partially mediated the relationship between emergency response capacity ability and mental workload, with a mediation effect value of -0.139, accounting for 26.8% of the total effect. Conclusion Mental workload, emergency response capacity ability and perceived social support of the nurses in this group are were all at a moderate level, and perceived social support partially mediated the relationship between emergency response capacity ability and mental workload. It is suggested that nurse nursing managers and families provide support nurses in various ways to improve nurses’ emergency response capacity ability and perceived perceptual social support, thus to reduce their mental workload.

Key words: nurse, mental workload, emergency response capacity ability, perceived social support, mediating effect