Background <p>Under the high-load operation of the medical system and the increasingly prominent occupational pressure of nurses, the occupational experience and working state of the nurse group have become the key factors affecting the quality of medical services. This study aims to explore the association mechanism between nurses’ thriving at work and perception of decent work, and introduces occupational calling as a mediating variable. Based on the potential profile analysis, the potential classification of nurses’ decent work and its influencing factors are revealed.</p> Methods <p>A cross-sectional study was conducted from January 2025 to April 2025, recruiting 785 nurses from three county hospitals in Ziyang. Participants completed the Decent Work Scale, the Thriving at Work Scale and the Occupational Calling Scale. Latent profile analysis is conducted to determine the potential profile of nurses’ decent work. Pearson correlation analysis, chi-square test, analysis of variance, non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis rank sum test and mediation analysis were used to analyze the relationship between variables.</p> Results <p>This study identified three latent profiles of nurses’ perception of decent work: “Low decent work-stagnation”, " moderate decent work-maintenance”, and “high decent work-development”. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that personnel status, weekly overtime hours, occupational calling and thriving at work were predictors of nurses’ perception of decent work. However, there was no statistical significance in terms of department, income and professional title among the individual sections. Correlation analysis shows that thriving at work and occupational calling are positively correlated with nurses’ perception of decent work. Occupational calling plays a significant mediating role in the impact of job prosperity on nurses’ perception of decent work, with a mediating effect of 47.88%.</p> Conclusion <p>Through potential profile analysis in this study, three types of potential profiles of nurses’ perception of decent work with significant differences were identified. It is suggested that medical institutions adopt differentiated intervention measures for nurses with different perceived types of decent work. Thriving at work helps explain how the occupational calling moderates nurses’ perception of decent work to a certain extent. Therefore, it is suggested that medical institutions pay attention to the thriving at work level of nurses, stimulate the occupational calling, and enhance nurses’ perception of decent work, so as to stabilize the nursing team and improve the quality of nursing.</p> Clinical trial number <p>Not applicable.</p>