Title: Absenteeism among nurses: costs, working conditions, and related factors

Authors: Emad Adel Shdaifat; Main Naser Alolayyan; Ahrjaynes Balanag Rosario; Najla Mohd Al-Ansari

Addresses: Department of Community Health Nursing, College of Nursing, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, City Dammam, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Health Management and Policy, Faculty of Medicine, Jordan University of Science and Technology, P.O. Box 3030, Irbid 22110, Jordan ' Department of Community Health Nursing, College of Nursing, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, City Dammam, Saudi Arabia ' Department of Nursing, King Fahd Hospital of the University, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: This paper determines productivity loss due to nursing absenteeism, identify causes and frequencies of absenteeism, describe working conditions, and determine predictors of absenteeism. A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out amongst 306 nurses in a university hospital using stratified random sampling. Binary logistic regression was performed to identify the predictors of absenteeism. The study found that productivity loss due to absenteeism in the studied teaching hospital was 425,749 USD annually. The most common cause of absence was minor aliment, followed by fatigue related to working overload. The predictors of absence among nurses were: nurses working in A-shift, having children, working in ICUs, and having normal BMI. The study indicates that the impact of absenteeism on productivity loss is high. More research is required to develop a deeper understanding of the relationship between absenteeism and its related factors.

Keywords: absenteeism; productivity loss; nurses; work condition.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPQM.2023.130186

International Journal of Productivity and Quality Management, 2023 Vol.38 No.4, pp.518 - 544

Received: 28 Jul 2020
Accepted: 20 Jun 2021
Published online: 06 Apr 2023 *

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