Journal of Holistic Nursing and Midwifery (Oct 2008)
Survey effective personal and familial factors on absenteeism in nursing professionals at educational – therapeutic centers in Rasht in 2007-2008
Abstract
Introduction: Absenteeism is a side effect of personnel problems. Researches in different societies show nursing professionals experience high level of sickness absence in comparison with other occupational professionals. Absenteeism adversely affects patient care both directly and indirectly and nurses also as members of health care systems suffer from it. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the effective personal and familial factors on absenteeism in nursing professionals at educational – therapeutic centers in Rasht. Methods: In this cross – sectional and descriptive study, 600 nursing professionals were studied. A self – administered questionnaire survey method was used to collect data and it was analyzed with SPSS 11.5, chi square and exact fisher test. Results: Analyses revealed that 78.8 % of nursing professionals were not absent in the last 6 months. In addition 71% of all absences were 1-3 days (short – term). The main cause of absence was illness (69.4%) and back pain had the highest rate (33.9%) among who were absent in the last 6 months. Double booked with another facility were associated with short term absence (p<0.05) but none of other factors associated with absence. Conclusion: These results suggest that nurse managers should recognize the factors that cause nurses to work in double facilities that can be related to financial demands or staffing status of nurses. Also because the main cause of absence was illness they should plan for promotion of nurses' health.
