Overcommitment and sick attendance at work in Chilean nursing staff
Keywords:
presenteeism, overcommitment, nursing, health personnel, occupational healthAbstract
Introduction: Attending work while ill is a common practice among healthcare personnel; however, few studies investigate the motivations underlying this behavior.
Objective: To determine whether overcommitment, sickness attendance, and the reasons for attending work while ill differ between nurses and nursing technicians, and to assess whether overcommitment and the motives for working while ill are explanatory factors of this behavior.
Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional and correlational study was conducted. The non-probabilistic sample consisted of 463 nurses and higher-level nursing technicians working in different health care centers. The overcommitment scale from the "Effort-Reward Imbalance" questionnaire and a scale assessing reasons for attending work while ill were applied. Descriptive statistics, correlations analyses, and stepwise linear regression were performed.
Results: Nurses showed a higher tendency to attend work while ill, with altruism identified as one of the main reasons. Overcommitment and fear of dismissal were explanatory factors of sickness attendance at work.
Conclusions: Overcommitment and fear of dismissal are relevant factors for understanding sickness attendance among nursing personnel, with potential implications for occupational health and the quality of health care delivery.
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Copyright (c) 2026 María José Casabonne-López, Aldo Vera-Calzaretta , Hiram Reyes-Sosa, David Cuadra-Martínez
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