Objective To explore the status of vocational delay of gratification and job embeddedness in young clinical nurses, and explore the correlation between them, so as to provide reference for managers in making effective intervention strategies to improve the nurses′ job embeddedness socialization. Methods In July 2016 to September 2016, a total of 347 young clinical nurses from a tertiary hospital in Harbin were selected by convenience sampling, with the data collected by demographic questionnaire, vocational delay of gratification scale and job embeddedness scale, and analyzed by SPSS version 17.0. Results On average, the young clinical nurses scored (3.02±0.42) points on vocational delay of gratification and (3.12±0.43) on job embeddedness. Their vocational delay of gratification were positively correlated to job embeddedness (r=0.418, P<0.01) . Possible predictors of job embeddedness of young clinical nurses were career delay of gratification, educational background and marital status in young clinical nurses (P<0.01) . Conclusions Career delay of gratification has positive influence on young clinical nurses′ job embeddedness. Administrators should actively create a variety of opportunities for nurses to improve their job embeddedness competency. Key words: Young clinical nurses; Vocational delay of gratification; Job embeddedness; Correlation