Association among job burnout, tolerance to uncertainty and working with sickness in clinical nurses / 中国职业医学

OBJECTIVE: To explore the association among job burnout, tolerance to uncertainty and working with sickness in clinical nurses. METHODS: A total of 1 159 clinical nurses from 10 cities in Henan Province and Fujian Province were recruited by stratified cluster sampling method and tested by questionnaires including the Chinese Perceived Stress Scale-14, the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale-12, the Sickness Presenteeism Questionnaire, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-general Survey. Bootstrap was used to analyze the association among perceived stress, tolerance to uncertainty, working with sickness and job burnout. RESULTS: Perceived stress score was(31.4±4.8), and 802(69.2%) of nurses had high perceived stress level. The score of tolerance to uncertainty was(29.8±8.5), and the score of working with sickness score was(5.5±2.0). The job burnout score was(47.9±11.8), and 570(49.2%) nurses had job burnout. Bootstrap test results showed that the perceived stress score positively affected job burnout score [standardized partial regression coefficient(β)=0.30, P<0.01]. Working with sickness score played a regulatory role between perceived stress and job burnout scores(β=0.16, P<0.01), and tolerance to uncertainty score played an intermediary role between perceived stress and job burnout scores(β=0.08, P<0.01). The regulating effect of working with sickness score played a role through the mediation of tolerance to uncertainty score. CONCLUSION: Job burnout was very serious in clinical nurses. Perceived stress can directly or through tolerance to uncertainty affect the job burnout of clinical nurses and is synergistically affected by sickness presenteeism.

Sickness Presenteeism among the Self-employed and Employed in Northwestern Europe-The Importance of Time Demands

BACKGROUND: European policymakers encourage individuals to become self-employed because it is a way to promote innovation and job creation. It can be assumed that health and well-being among the self-employed and managers in small-scale enterprises are particularly crucial in this enterprise group because the smallness of the enterprise makes its members vulnerable. Earlier studies have indicated that the self-employed have a high working pace and work for long and irregular hours, indicating that it can be difficult to stay at home because of sickness. The purpose of this study is to investigate the occurrence of sickness presenteeism among the self-employed in relation to the organizationally employed and to analyze whether any differences can be explained by higher work demands among the self-employed. METHODS: The study is based on the fifth European survey on working conditions (2010) and includes the northwestern European countries in the survey. The questions cover a wide range of topics designed to meet the European Union's political needs. The main variables in this study are sickness presenteeism and several indicators of time demands. RESULTS: The results show that the self-employed report a higher level of sickness presenteeism than the employed: 52.4 versus 43.6%. All indicators of time demands are significantly related to the risk for sickness presenteeism, also when controlling for background characteristics. CONCLUSION: The results confirm that the level of sickness presenteeism is higher among the selfemployed and that high time demands are a major explanation to this.

Sick at work: prevalence and determinants among healthcare workers, western Ethiopia: an institution based cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND: Going to work despite feeling sick also known as sickness presenteeism is one of the emerging global occupational health challenges. Sickness presenteeism negatively affects both health of work forces and productivity of organizations in general. However, there is insufficient research exploring this situation in majority of the Sub-Saharan African countries, including Ethiopia. Thus this study intended to investigate the prevalence and determinant factors of sickness presenteeism among health care workers, Western Ethiopia. METHODS: This study used an institution based cross-sectional quantitative study design. The study period was from February to March, 2017. We employed simple random sampling method to select 360 study samples. Data collection was performed by pre-tested structured and self- administered questionnaire. We used SPSS version 20 to carry out binary logistic regression analysis. Odds ratio with 95% confidence intervals was calculated and significance of associations was determined at p-value < 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 344 respondents fully completed the survey questionnaire. Mean age with standard deviation was 30.28 ± 6.181. Prevalence of sickness Presenteeism was 52.6% [95%CI: (47.4, 57.8)] in the past 12 months. Educational status [AOR:2.1, 95%CI: (1.17,3.90)], financial problem [AOR:1.9,95%CI:(1.07,3.46)], sickness absenteeism [AOR:2.7,95% CI:(1.50,5.02)], lack of staff replacement [AOR:2.7,95%CI:(1.50,5.02)], absence of occupational health services [AOR:3.0,95%CI:(1.34,6.70)], and pressure from supervisor [AOR:1.8,95% CI:(1.01,3.31)] were significant predictors of the dependent variable. CONCLUSION: Relatively higher proportions of workers indicated sickness presenteeism as compared to other studies. Risk factors like educational status, personal financial problem, sickness absenteeism, lack of staff replacement, absence of occupational health services, and pressure from supervisors considerably increased the likely occurrence of employees’ sick attendance. It is advisable for health care managers to hire adequate health care staffs, to implement basic occupational health services and to design strategies which reduce pressure from supervisors.

Gender differences in Reasons for Sickness Presenteeism - a study among GPs in a Swedish health care organization

BACKGROUND: It is common that physicians go to work while sick and therefore it is important to understand the reasons behind. Previous research has shown that women and men differ in health and health related behavior. In this study, we examine gender differences among general practitioners who work while sick. METHODS: General practitioners (GP’s) working in outpatient care in a Swedish city participated in the study (n = 283; women = 63 %; response rate = 41 %). Data were obtained from a large web-based questionnaire about health and organization within primary care. Two questions about sickness presenteeism (going to work while sick) were included; life-long and during the past 12 months, and five questions about reasons. We controlled for general health, work-family conflict and demographic variables. RESULTS: Female physicians reported sickness presenteeism more often than male physicians. Work-family conflict mediated the association between gender and sickness presenteeism. Women reported reasons related with “concern for others” and “workload” more strongly than men. Men reported reasons related with “capacity” and “money” more strongly than women. These differences are likely effects of gender stereotyping and different family-responsibilities. CONCLUSIONS: Gender socialization and gender stereotypes may influence work and health-related behavior. Because sickness presenteeism is related with negative effects both on individuals and at organizational levels, it is important that managers of health organizations understand the reasons for this, and how gender roles may influence the prevalence of sickness presenteeism and the reasons that female and male GPs give for their behavior.