Presenteeism – a common phenomenon in the study population of nurses

Introduction:
Presenteeism is defined as an employee’s attending work despite illness. The phenomenon has become more widespread in the health protection sector, especially among nurses. In addition, the researchers emphasize that this phenomenon has a huge impact on the economic burden resulting from the employee’s presence at work despite their illness, and it contributes to an increase in the number of medical errors. It seems justified to highlight the problem and define the factors determining such an attitude among nurses. The aim of the study was to indicate the predictors of operating room nurses’ presence at work despite disease symptoms and classi-fication of the symptoms. In addition, the attitudes of people who come to work ill were compared with those who stay at home dur-ing illness, to observe the differences.

Material and methods:
The study was carried out in 2021 and covered 900 working nurses taking the state examination in operating room nursing. A total of 861 surveys were analysed. The study authors used an original questionnaire about ill employees coming to work (being on duty) and the most common symptoms accompanying work when ill.

Results:
There were many factors that contributed statistically significantly to the attitude of presenteeism; they included the sense of re-sponsibility towards workmates (p = 0.000, χ² = 16.86) and the employer (p = 0.000, χ² = 14.49) or concerns about stable employ-ment (p = 0.016, χ² = 5.89). A lack of statistical significance for the sense of responsibility towards the patient was an interesting observation. Moreover, the respondents were aware that coming to work when ill affects the quality of work and contributes to a higher risk of committing an error.

Conclusions:
Even though presenteeism is deeply rooted in a nurse’s job culture, the nursing staff, employers, and decision-makers in the health protection sector should be aware of its negative consequences.