Presenteeism among nurses: An integrative review

Background: Presenteeism, a phenomenon in which employees attend work despite physical or mental limitations, is prevalent among nurses and has negative implications for patients, healthcare organizations, and nurses themselves.

Objective: We aimed to present the current state of knowledge on presenteeism in nursing, focusing on prevalence rates, reasons, influencing factors, and consequences.

Design: We performed an integrative review.

Methods: We searched databases for studies on presenteeism in the nursing workforce published between 2018 and 2024. This review included 44 studies that met the inclusion criteria, specifically 38 quantitative studies, 4 qualitative studies, and 2 reviews.

Results: The results indicated that the prevalence of nurses exhibiting symptoms of presenteeism varies between 32 % and 94 %. The influencing factors include workload, team culture, age, childcare responsibilities, job insecurity, and leadership practices. Presenteeism can lead to significant individual and organizational consequences such as increased health issues among nurses, decreased quality of patient care, and higher healthcare costs. Most studies were focused on nurses who work in hospitals, with only one study addressing nurses who work in nursing homes.

Conclusion: This review highlights the high prevalence of presenteeism among nurses and its multifaceted causes and effects. This underscores the need for increased awareness and training of both nurses and management teams regarding the importance of addressing presenteeism. Further research is needed in settings such as nursing homes and outpatient care to understand the unique challenges and impacts in these environments. Efforts should focus on improving working conditions, fostering supportive organizational cultures, and implementing effective leadership practices to mitigate the negative effects of presenteeism.