Being Sick and Yet Present—The Connection Between Personality Traits and Presenteeism Behaviour Among Nurses

AIM: To explore the association between nurses' personality traits and their presenteeism behaviour. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. METHODS: Nurses from various settings in Switzerland were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling. Data was collected using an online questionnaire. A multiple linear regression was conducted for data analysis. RESULTS: A total of 255 questionnaires were included in the analysis. Presenteeism is moderate among nurses with a mean of 2.73 (SD = 0.93). The participants were less prone to presenteeism if a physician had advised them to stay away from work. The results indicated that consciousness, neuroticism and being a nursing assistant with formal education and working in a nursing home had a significant positive correlation with nurses' presenteeism behaviour. CONCLUSION: Conscientiousness may indicate a sense of duty among nurses. Neuroticism could be reflected in higher emotional stress and susceptibility to stress. Workload and role demands may be associated with higher presenteeism scores among nursing assistants with formal education. Increased staffing needs in nursing homes may explain elevated presenteeism scores.