Objective To explore the relationship between perceived stress

psychological resilience and mental health of clinical nurses

and to provide theoretical guidance for improving the mental health of clinical nurses.Methods Using the stratified cluster random sampling method

730 clinical nurses from two tertiary hospitals in western Liaoning were selected as the study subjects. The Chinese version of the Perceived Stress Scale（CPSS）

the 14-item Resilience Scale（RS14） and the 12-item General Health Questionnaire（GHQ-12） were used to conduct questionnaire surveys on the study subjects. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 22.0 and AMOS22.0. Results The GHQ-12 score of the subjects was（27.67±6.56）. The GHQ-12 score male subjects was higher than those of female subjects（P <0.05）; the differences were statistically significant（P <0.05） when comparing the GHQ-12 scores of study subjects with different academic degrees

and one-by-one comparisons revealed that the GHQ-12 scores of study subjects with bachelor’s degree were lower than those of study subjects with specialist and secondary school degrees（P <0.05）; the differences were statistically significant（P <0.05）when comparing the GHQ-12 scores of study subjects from different departments

and one-by-one comparisons revealed that the GHQ-12 scores of study subjects in pediatrics and emergency departments were higher than those of study subjects in outpatient clinics（P <0.05）. The results of correlation analysis showed that the CPSS and its dimensions were negatively correlated with the RS-14 and its dimensions in the study subjects（all P <0.05）

the CPSS and its dimensions were positively correlated with the GHQ-12（P <0.05）

and the RS-14 and its dimensions were negatively correlated with the GHQ-12（P <0.05）. The results of the mediation effect test showed that psychological resilience partially mediates the relationship between perceived stress and mental health

and the ratio of the mediation effect to the total effect was 13.16%. Conclusion Psychological resilience partially mediates the relationship between perceived stress and mental health among clinical nurses

suggesting that hospital administrators can reduce the impact of perceived stress on mental health by improving the level of psychological resilience of nurses.