How to Know if You’re Really There: An Evaluation of Measures for Presenteeism in Nursing

OBJECTIVES: To report presenteeism prevalence across presenteeism measures from the work-stress and sickness domains. To evaluate the psychometric fit of those measures in a nursing population. METHODS: Cross-sectional descriptive survey of 447 US RNs using five reliable and validated measures of presenteeism: Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS), Job-Stress-Related Presenteesim Scale (JSRPS), Healthcare Productivity Scale (HPS), Nurses Work Functioning Questionnaire (NWFQ), and Health and Work Questionnaire (HWQ). The survey was evaluated using descriptive, exploratory, and confirmatory factor analysis. RESULTS: Mean rates among nurses (SPS = 19.50, JSRPS = 2.1, HPS = -15.1, NWFQ = 17.0, and HWQ = 6.7) were higher than previously published and spanned both job-stress and sickness domains of presenteeism. We identified different factor structures than previously published for three of the five instruments. CONCLUSION: An inclusive conceptualization of presenteeism that includes work-stress and sickness domains is crucial to developing future measures and interventions for presenteeism.