Exploring anesthesiology nurse’ presenteeism in China: cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health (2024) 24:2008 Jianlan et al. BMC Public Health https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-19476-9 Open Access RESEARCH Exploring anesthesiology nurse’ presenteeism in China: cross‑sectional study Ren Jianlan1,2,4*, Yuan Mei1, Yang Chunyan3, Xie Rendie1, Bai Yiping1,2 and Liu Li1,2 Abstract Background The department of anesthesiology is the main battlefield for the treatment of acute and critical patients, with high work risk and high work pressure. Due to the particularity of the working environment and nature of work, medical staff have become a group with a high incidence of occupational exhaustion and presenteeism. Objective To investigate the current status of presenteeism among anesthesiology nurses in China and to analyze the related influencing factors. Methods Three hundred twelve anesthesiology nurses in Sichuan Province were surveyed by means of general data questionnaire, presenteeism scale, work-family conflict scale, perceived social support scale, occupational commitment scale and stress resistance scale from September to November 2023 by convenience sampling method. Results The total score of presenteeism was (14.67 ± 3.92), the score of work-family conflict was (45.44 ± 15.90), the score of professional commitment was (87.28 ± 14.30), and the score of perceived social support was (66.04 ± 12.78). The evaluation score of stress resistance was (73.35 ± 11.54). The results of multivariate analysis showed that age, education, mode of employment, position, overtime hours per week, work-family conflict, perceived social support and stress resistance were the factors that affected the presenteeism of anesthesiology nurses, which could explain 44.1% of the total variation. The position ( β = 0.296, P < 0.001), overtime hours per week (h) ( β = 0.271, P < 0.001), perceived social support ( β = -0.279, P < 0.001) turned out as the stronger predictors of presenteeism. Conclusion The presenteeism of anesthesiology nurses is at a high level and needs to be further improved. Clinical nursing managers should pay attention to the physical and mental health and special needs of anesthesiology nurses. Interventions are made according to the main influencing factors, so as to reduce the incidence of presenteeism and improve the quality and safety of surgery. Keywords Anesthesiology nurses, Presenteeism, Work-family conflict, Social support, Occupational commitment, Stress resilience *Correspondence: Ren Jianlan 1 Department of Anesthesiology, the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China 2 Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine Key Laboratory of Luzhou, Luzhou, China 3 Department of Cardiology, the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China 4 The Operating Room, the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China Introduction In order to promote the high-quality development of nursing in China and improve the health level of the people. On April 29, 2022, the Ministry of Health of China formulated the National Nursing Development Plan (2021–2025). The Plan points out that it is necessary to adhere to high-quality development, take improving the quality and level of nursing services as the core task, and strengthen the construction of the nursing team [1]. 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The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Jianlan et al. BMC Public Health (2024) 24:2008 is the main place of emergency and critical treatment, which needs sufficient human resources, necessary technology and high-precision equipment to monitor and treat patients with critical surgery. Its work is risky and the work pressure is great. Due to long-term and high-load work, medical staff may suffer from physical fatigue and mental breakdown [2, 3]. It has a great impact on the physical and mental health of nurses and is not conducive to the high-quality development of nursing teams. Presenteeism, also known as impaired health productivity, was first proposed by Professor Copper [4]. A wellknown definition of presenteeism of Burton et al. [5] is “ The loss of productivity due to employee health problems who are present but not fully productive.” In principal, presenteeism refers to people who should take leave for rest due to health problems but still stay at work, which is manifested as low work efficiency and reduced work commitment [4, 6]. Relevant studies have shown that due to the particularity of the working environment and nature of work, medical staff have become a group with a high incidence of occupational exhaustion and presenteeism [7–9]. One study found that nurses are four times more likely to have presenteeism than other professions [10]. Recent findings have revealed a high prevalence of attendance problems in nursing work. Specifically, up to 52.6% of US nurses reported that they had difficulty concentrating at work at some point during the past four weeks [11]. In addition, the situation in Swedish hospitals cannot be ignored, where the incidence of attendance problems was 49% for registered nurses and 47% for assistant nurses [12]. In Portugal, the figure is 55% [13]. One healthcare specialty that has reported a recent spike in burnout in the United States is registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs). While burnout was found to have a negative impact on the health of the organisation (for example, reduced job satisfaction and absenteeism), as well as reduced quality and satisfaction with patient care [14, 15]. But we found no studies on presenteeism for anesthesiology nurses. Presenteeism is associated with multiple physical and mental health problems in nurses. Several determinants or correlates of attendance have been identified in past studies. The reasons may be work-related (job insecurity, fear of losing income, strict absenteeism policies, overwork, understaffing, overtime, stress experienced) or based on person-related factors (gender, age, occupation, (...truncated)