Congruence and Incongruence in Sickness Presenteeism and Emotional Labor With Job Burnout in Pediatric Nurses: A...

Pediatric nurses are particularly vulnerable to job burnout, which can negatively impact both care quality and workforce retention. Sickness presenteeism and emotional labor are prevalent in pediatric nursing environments and may interact to influence burnout, yet their combined effects remain.

This study investigated the joint association of sickness presenteeism and emotional labor with job burnout among pediatric nurses in China.

A multicenter cross-sectional study. Polynomial regression with response surface analysis was employed to assess the effects of congruence and incongruence between sickness presenteeism and emotional labor on burnout levels.

Participants reported moderate levels of both sickness presenteeism and emotional labor, alongside low levels of job burnout. Notably, job burnout was minimized when both sickness presenteeism and emotional labor were at moderate levels. In contrast, burnout was highest when both variables were either very high or very low (a₁ = 0.755, p < 0.01; a₂ = 0.113, p < 0.05). Furthermore, greater incongruence between sickness presenteeism and emotional labor was associated with increased job burnout (a₃ = 0.629, p < 0.01; a₄ = 0.125, p < 0.05).

This study found that the joint association of sickness presenteeism and emotional labor with job burnout among pediatric nurses is both linear and nonlinear, exhibiting a U-shaped pattern along congruence and incongruence lines. Job burnout was the highest when both sickness presenteeism and emotional labor were either very high or very low and when marked incongruence existed between them. These findings suggest that nursing managers should monitor sickness presenteeism and emotional labor, avoid extreme imbalance and incongruence, and foster a supportive work environment to mitigate job burnout.