Objective  To investigate the status and influencing factors of work engagement in nursing home administrators and to provide evidences for improving work engagement the administrators.

  Methods  We conducted a online survey among 186 nursing home administrators recruited using stratified multistage random sampling across China in May 2018. A self-designed questionnaire on general information, the 9-Item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9), and the 10-item Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D10) were adopted in the study.

  Results  The mean score of UWES-9 was 41.85 ± 9.92 for all the administrators and the work engagement of the administrators was influenced significantly by job achievement, CES-D10 score, and whether participating in occupation training (P < 0.05 for all).

  Conclusion  The work engagement is generally at medium level among nursing home administrators in China and relevant agencies should implement effective measures to promote work engagement of the administrators.