Absenteeism among hospital nurses: an idiographic-longitudinal analysis

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Occupational Health

Background:

• Employee absenteeism is a significant concern in healthcare.
• Understanding the triggers for absence is crucial for workforce management.
• Individual and group factors influence absenteeism.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify events associated with nurse absenteeism.
• To explore individual differences in absence triggers.
• To examine the relationship between desire to be absent and actual absence.

Main Methods:

• Nurses rated the presence of absence-relevant events during workdays.
• Event ratings were compared between days of absence and days of attendance.
• Analysis focused on consistent predictors and individual-specific triggers.

Main Results:

• Ill health and tiredness consistently predicted nurse absenteeism.
• Individual factors like sick family members or attendance concerns influenced some nurses' absences.
• Some events correlated with the desire to be absent but not actual absence.

Conclusions:

• Nurse absenteeism is influenced by both universal factors (e.g., health) and individual-specific triggers.
• The discrepancy between desire and action regarding absence warrants further investigation, potentially involving attribution bias or multi-stage decision processes.