Digital Literacy and Psychological Resilience Alleviate Nurses’ Work Stress: Examining the Moderating Role of Ward Environment

Objective Nurses' work stress significantly impacts the quality of nursing care. While digital literacy and psychological resilience serve as potential mitigating factors, their mechanisms of action remain unclear. The moderating effect of ward environments, in particular, requires urgent validation. Methods We employed snowball sampling and a cross-sectional design to recruit 305 in-service nurses from 12 hospitals in Western China. Participants completed standardized questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analyses were performed using SPSS version 30.0. Path analysis was conducted using AMOS version 30.0. Additionally, PROCESS macro (version 4.3) was used to test the moderating role of ward environment (specifically, Emergency Room vs. ICU) in the pathway from digital literacy to work stress, assess the mediating effect of psychological resilience, and evaluate the conditional effect of ward environment on this mediation pathway. Results Psychological resilience fully mediated the relationship between digital literacy and nurses' work stress (β = −0.064). Hospital ward context accounted for 48.8% of the variance in nurses' work stress and moderated the pathways involving both digital literacy and psychological resilience. In ICU settings, the protective effect of psychological resilience was attenuated (index value = 0.108), and these units exhibited the highest levels of work stress (F = 126.213, P < 0.001). Conversely, the Emergency Room showed a dual-pathway stress reduction mechanism: a direct effect of digital literacy (β = −0.185) and an indirect effect through psychological resilience (β = −0.131), collectively reducing work stress by 21%. Conclusion The stress-reducing effects of digital literacy and psychological resilience are contingent upon specific ward types. For clinical practice, tailored interventions are recommended: integrate digital technology with resilience training programs in Emergency Rooms; prioritize systemic workflow redesign in ICUs; and enhance resilience-building initiatives in general wards.