Objective To understand the mediating and moderating role of psychological coherence among intern nursing students between transition shock and learning burnout.

Methods A questionnaire survey was conducted among higher vocational intern nursing students in tertiary hospitals in Anhui Province through the convenience sampling method, which included the general information questionnaire, Chinese version of the transition impact assessment scale for undergraduate nursing interns, learning burnout scale for college students and psychological coherence scale. After the completion of the survey, the obtained data were statistically analyzed.

Results The total score of transition shock of 1345 nursing students was (46.76 ± 8.96) points, the total score of learning burnout was (59.51 ± 10.43) points, and the total score of psychological coherence was (58.02 ± 12.07) points. The proportions of those with no, mild, moderate and severe learning burnout were 21.41%, 17.10%, 31.30% and 30.19%, respectively. The transition shock was significantly positively correlated with learning burnout (r = 0.543, P ＜ 0.01), and significantly negatively correlated with psychological coherence (r = –0.550, P ＜ 0.01). The psychological coherence was significantly negatively correlated with learning burnout (r = –0.584, P ＜ 0.01). The psychological coherence played a partial mediating role in the relationship between transition shock and learning burnout, with a mediating effect value of 0.236, accounting for 41.48% of the total effect. The psychological coherence had a moderating effect between transition shock and learning burnout (β = 0.119, ∆R² = 0.014, P ＜ 0.01).

Conclusions The degree of learning burnout of higher vocational nursing students during their internship in Anhui Province is at a medium level. Meanwhile, the psychological coherence plays a mediating and moderating role between transition shock and learning burnout.