engleski

Presenteeism and Absenteeism of Health Care Workers and Patient Safety Culture

Introduction: Health care is considered to be one of the high-risk occupations in Croatia because health care workers (HCW) are exposed to numerous occupational hazards and harm. Repeated exposure of HCW to negative or demanding conditions results in psycho- physiological imbalance that results in long- term chronic health problems and the emergence of presenteeism and absenteeism in the workplace. Absenteeism is considered to be any absence from work. Research showed that absenteeism of HCW could potentially threaten a large number of patients, which further increases costs in the healthcare system and compromises the quality of their work and the quality of health care. It was our aim to investigate the prevalence of nurses Materials and methods: This is a cross- sectional study which included medical nurses. Data were collected during April and May 2012. The study was conducted in a general hospital in Croatia. A total of 194 questionnaires were distributed and 147 returned, yielding response rate of 75, 77%. Nurses from non-surgical, surgical, pediatric, obstetrics, psychiatry departments and anesthesiology/ICU participated in this research. Two questionnaires were used, The World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire short form (WHO HPQ) and Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Results: The data were not normally distributed (p>0, 005). Median for relative absenteeism (4- week estimate) was 0, 9 (minimum was 0, 83, maximum 1). Out of 147 nurses participated, 68, 03% (100/147) had experienced absenteeism in the last 4 weeks. Nurses who experienced absenteeism had statistically significantly (p<0, 005, Independent Samples Mann-Whitney U Test) higher median 0, 92 than nurses who have not experienced absenteeism in the last 4 weeks (median 0, 88). Overall patient safety was graded as very good. Discussion: Our result show high rate of absenteeism among respondents. However, patient safety was graded as very good.

nurse; absenteeism; patient safety culture

nije evidentirano