Nurse Engagement in Professional and Organisational Citizenship Over the Past Decade: An Integrative Review

Aim

To report the current state of nurses' engagement in professional and organisational citizenship behaviours worldwide and identify the factors that enable or hinder these discretionary, value-adding actions.

Design

Integrative literature review.

Methods

Peer-reviewed empirical studies, theoretical works and editorials published in English between January 2015 and April 2025 were eligible. Reports had to examine nurses' engagement in professional citizenship behaviours or organisational citizenship behaviours. Conference abstracts, dissertations and studies centred on non-nursing workforces were excluded. Quality was appraised with the mixed methods appraisal tool; data were synthesised narratively using constant-comparison techniques.

Data Sources

CINAHL Complete and MEDLINE were searched on 30 April 2025.

Results

Nineteen articles met the inclusion criteria: seventeen empirical studies (sixteen cross-sectional surveys; one randomised controlled trial) and two editorials. Research emerged across eight countries, including Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America. For organisational citizenship, six inter-locking themes emerged: (1) psychological resources and personality, (2) attitudinal and affective mediators, (3) leadership effects, (4) ethical, fair and supportive climate, (5) outcomes (patient safety, job satisfaction, retention) of organisational citizenship and (6) sparse intervention evidence (one neurolinguistic programming RCT). No empirical studies directly measured professional citizenship; evidence is limited to two conceptual papers calling for civic, policy and professional association engagement. Thus, the main theme was (7) professional citizenship as a nascent (i.e., emerging) field. Overall, citizenship flourished when nurses felt psychologically resourced, fairly treated and supported by transformational or ethical leaders. Burnout, incivility and destructive leadership suppressed organisational citizenship behaviours.

Conclusion

Nurses' organisational citizenship behaviours yield important benefits for patients, staff and healthcare organisations, including improved safety, satisfaction and retention. In contrast, professional citizenship behaviours remain largely conceptual, highlighting the need for foundational research to define and operationalise this construct. Advancing both organisational and professional citizenship should be a strategic priority for health systems worldwide to sustain the nursing workforce and strengthen care quality.

Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care

Embedding citizenship behaviours in education, leadership development and policy can strengthen workforce retention, enhance patient-safety culture and drive professional advocacy. Priority actions include routine assessment of organisational citizenship behaviours, leadership coaching and instrument development, plus intervention trials targeting professional citizenship behaviours.