Presenteeism among health care workers: literature review

Abstract

Presenteeism is an occupational and psychosocial phenomenon with negative impact on the work environment. In addition to causing losses in productivity losses, it also has implications for the state of health of workers. Therefore, presenteeism is likely to become a serious public health problem. The aim of the present study was to discuss the implications, means for evaluation and impact of presenteeism on the health and work of health care workers. We performed a literature search in database PubMed using keywords presenteeism, absenteeism, nurse presenteeism, physician presenteeism, sickness presenteeism, physician health organization, and working sick. We conclude that adequate assessment, raising the health managers’ awareness about the risks and harms associated with this phenomenon, and developing management tools will contribute to reduce the impact of presenteeism. This seems to be the proper path to make this problem more visible and hinder its growth.