Nurses’ Occupational Stress and Presenteeism: The Mediating Role of Public Service Motivation and the Moderating Role of Health

Abstract

Presenteeism not only poses an economic cost to organizations but also generates reduced work efficiency and quality. The purpose of this study was to examine the connections between occupational stress, public service motivation (PSM), health, and presenteeism. A total of 981 nurses from 109 public hospitals in Jilin Province in China were enrolled in our study. Model 5 in the PROCESS micro was employed in order to verify the mediating effect of PSM and the moderating effect of nurses’ health on the relationship between occupational stress and presenteeism, and simple slope analysis was used to further determine the moderating effect. Both challenge stress and hindrance stress had a positive impact on presenteeism among nurses. PSM is a mediating variable between occupational stress and presenteeism. Health moderates the path between challenge stress and presenteeism, with the association being significant for nurses with low levels of health. Future policy making should focus on preventing presenteeism by reducing excessive stress, enhancing PSM, and improving nurse health and wellness.

Why Are Spanish Nurses Going to Work Sick? Questionnaire for the Measurement of Presenteeism in Nurses

“…The nurses in the study indicated that even though they knew they were not at 100%, it was more prevalent for them to go to work sick, for reasons such as the high workload, not leaving their colleagues alone, low staffing levels, etc., all of which have been confirmed in other studies [ 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Our extensive questionnaire, with well identified factors, has made it possible to collect all the causes and reasons that lead nurses to come to work or to stay at work even when they are not feeling well, thus allowing us to obtain a very complete view of the phenomenon, which is useful for carrying out policies of care and attention to nurses [ 1 , 2 , 3 ].…”

“…On account of all the above reasons, many nurses decide to go to work despite not being at 100% of their capacity and, hence, there may be a relation between presenteeism and reduced patient safety (although no studies have explicitly related these issues). This is because the errors that are made in healthcare frequently involve professionals who are in direct contact with the patient, where physiological problems such as lack of sleep, fatigue, suffering from some kind of illness (acute or chronic), and/or taking medication, bear a relation with the errors made [ 22 , 23 ].…”

Job Crafting and Nurses' Presenteeism: The Effects of Job Embeddedness and Job Irreplaceability

“…Nurses with a high level of job embeddedness tend to attach great importance to organizational interests, keep high organizational loyalty ( 39 ), and aim to maximize benefits for the organization. Hence, they might be keenly aware of the dark side of presenteeism, a negative work state that would lead to depletion of work capacity and loss of organizational productivity ( 54 ), and thus, avoid its occurrence. In general, individuals' job crafting would increase their job embeddedness, which would result in having higher organizational loyalty and tighter organizational ties, and thus, further influence them to avoid conducting presenteeism to maintain organizational interests.…”

Emotional Intelligence and Social Support: Two Key Factors in Preventing Occupational Stress during COVID-19

“…A large number of studies are currently examining how the pandemic is changing work conditions and affecting several job-related outcomes [ 17 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. Among them, some authors have pointed out that both EI and social support have a strong impact in mitigating negative job-related outcomes.…”