Objective: The objective of this study is to investigate the status and associations of nursing practice environments in intensive care units of tertiary hospitals and provide suggestions for improvement.Background: Nursing shortage is an urgent global problem and a concern in China.Intensive care unit nurses have been reported to have one of the highest rates of burnout; however, their comprehensive perceptions of nursing practice environments have not yet been examined. Methods:The Nursing Practice Environment Scale was used to conduct a questionnaire-based survey of 1,523 intensive care unit nurses from 22 tertiary hospitals in China. The data collection was conducted in 2020. Results:The overall score for the nursing practice environment was 77.042 AE 19.682 (where 100 was the highest possible score). The three highest scoring dimensions were quality management, clinical nursing professionalism and professional improvement, whereas the three lowest-scoring dimensions were hospital management participation, remuneration package and social status. Educational background, position, gender and hospital type were significantly associated with nurses' satisfaction with the working environment. Conclusion:Chinese nurses in the intensive care units of tertiary hospitals reported relatively satisfactory nursing practice environments, but the scale scores in dimensions such as hospital management participation, remuneration package and social status remained low.Implications for nursing management: Understanding the status and associations of the nursing practice environment in intensive care units provides evidence that new policies are needed. Furthermore, managers are responsible for supervising and ensuring that nursing practice environments meet the criteria necessary to improve job satisfaction.

Background Transition shock experienced by nursing students during their clinical practicums is a relevant and worrying issue, which will affect their adaptability to work and future development. However, little is known about influencing factors of transition shock for nursing students. Objectives To investigate the status quo of transition shock among nursing students, and to discover its influencing factors in the transition process. Design: A cross-sectional descriptive survey. Setting: The survey was carried out at four tertiary A hospitals in Changsha, Hunan province, which is located in south-central China. Participants: In November 2022, a total of 620 full-time nursing students were investigated by convenient sampling, and 564 valid questionnaires were recovered in this study. Methods Sociodemographic information of students were collected. The Transition Shock Scale was used to evaluate students' transition shock level. Results The average of the overall score of the Transition Shock Scale was 46.67 ± 8.99. Attitude towards nursing has significant impact on influencing students' transition shock (p ＜ 0.05). Additionally, the number of night shift, whether chose nursing as first choice or not, whether being class leaders or not, education level, future plan, school scale, monthly household income also contributed to different dimensions of transition shock (p ＜ 0.05). Conclusions The transition shock of nursing students was at medium level. The transition shock influencing factor of them was their attitude towards nursing. Therefore, administrators in clinical practice should pay attention to the impact of the transition shock and take reasonable intervention measures to enhance the positive impact of the attitude towards nursing on transition and help nursing students successfully complete the transition.