Objective <p>To determine whether psychological resilience and achievement motivation are significant mediators in the relationship between creative anxiety and professional identity among master’s nursing students.</p> Methods <p>A questionnaire survey was conducted with 366 master’s nursing students from four universities in Shaanxi Province. The survey used the General Information Questionnaire, Creative Anxiety Scale, Professional Identity Scale, Psychological Resilience Scale, and Achievement Motivation Scale. Pearson’s r was used to examine the relationships among the variables, and a structural equation model (SEM) was employed to clarify the mediating effects.</p> Results <p>In this study, the mean scores of creative anxiety, professional identity, psychological resilience, and achievement motivation among 366 master’s nursing students were (12.92 ± 3.58), (48.47 ± 12.76), (28.32 ± 7.71), and (6.23 ± 1.83), respectively. Creative anxiety showed significant negative correlations with professional identity (<i>r</i> = − 0.668, <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001), psychological resilience (<i>r</i> = − 0.537, <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001), and achievement motivation (<i>r</i> = − 0.503, <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001). Conversely, professional identity demonstrated positive correlations with both psychological resilience (<i>r</i> = 0.713, <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001) and achievement motivation (<i>r</i> = 0.663, <i>P</i> &lt; 0.001). Mediation analysis revealed that the total effect of creative anxiety on professional identity (β = −0.458) comprised a direct effect (β = −0.124) and an indirect effect mediated through psychological resilience and achievement motivation (β = −0.334). A significant serial mediation effect was observed (β = −0.092), with psychological resilience and achievement motivation serving as sequential mediators between creative anxiety and professional identity. This serial mediation accounted for 8.97% of the total effect, with a 95% confidence interval of (− 0.211 ~ − 0.009).</p> Conclusion <p>There is a multiple mediation effect among creative anxiety, professional identity, psychological resilience, and achievement motivation among master’s nursing students. Creative anxiety is closely related to professional identity. Therefore, it is recommended that university administrators focus on enhancing the psychological resilience and achievement motivation of master’s nursing students to reduce their creative anxiety and improve their professional identity.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>