Nurse health, work environment, presenteeism and patient safety (11 July 2019)

Summary

Presenteeism is linked to negative outcomes for patients, nurses, and healthcare organisations; however, we lack understanding of the relationships between nurse fatigue, burnout, psychological well-being, team vitality, presenteeism, and patient safety in nursing.

In this study from Rainbow et al., the two aims were: (a) to examine the fit of a literature-derived model of the relationships between presenteeism, psychological health and well-being, fatigue, burnout, team vitality, and patient safety; and (b) to examine the role of presenteeism as a mediator between patient safety and the other model variables.

The findings indicate that focusing on job-stress presenteeism may be relevant for this population and may offer additional insight into factors contributing to decreased nurse performance and the resulting risks to patient safety.