Factors Influencing Absenteeism Amongst Nurses Working In A General Hospital At Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.

Factors Influencing Absenteeism Amongst Nurses Working In a General Hospital At Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.
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Factors Influencing Absenteeism Amongst Nurses Working In a General Hospital At Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia.
Abstract body: nurses withstand high amounts of work, leading to exhaustion and absenteeism in their places of work that already faces staff shortages.
Objective: To ascertain aspects influencing absenteeism amongst professional nurses, attached to a general hospital in Saudi Arabia with an aim to recommend approaches that could reduce absenteeism.
Method: The research comprised of 625 nurses, including both enrolled and professional nurses. The study carried out in this research consist of closed-ended inquiries while others had different alternatives such as agreeing or disagreeing. Similarly, the survey in some parts had open-ended sections of questions.
Result: numerous factors influenced the rates of absenteeism in nurses in Saudi Arabia general hospital. This includes lack of motivation, the unfriendly environment comprising of colleagues and management, high workload, long working hours, lack of equipment, level of education, unfair promotion, lack of reward mechanism, and years of experience. Additionally, some factors have a strong influence while others have minimal.
Conclusion: from the research, professional factors, personal, and organizational may influence nurse absenteeism in one way or another, affecting the health sector more adding to the backdrop of mechanical resource and human shortage.

Introduction
Absenteeism is not a typical problem in Saudi Arabia alone; it is a problem affecting almost all organizations all over the world including healthcare facilities. For this case, absenteeism is outlined as the failure of an employee to turn up to work, irrespective of the reason. Similarly, it can refer to employees who were expected to report to work but become absent. Adverse effects resulting from absenteeism are a massive challenge to Saudi Arabian hospitals. As per the research carried out by Martocchio, absenteeism is among the leading causes of time wastage and poor productivity faced by not only Saudi Arabian hospitals but also healthcare sectors in all parts of the world. Saudi Arabia as a country is experiencing severe challenges in matters concerning nursing, principally regarding the shortage of staff and reduction is skilled nurses in the healthcare sector, specifically the public sector. This is evident because the standards of nursing care have been declining over time.
Numerous studies regarding this subject have been carried out and what has been something usual is the negative impacts caused by absenteeism of nurses throughout various parts of the world. Apart from the studies is the literature review which reveals much in regards to various factors that influence nurse absenteeism in workplaces. What looks like something simple has been costing the healthcare sector in terms of finances and the quality of care given to patients. In that case, this study aims to investigate the factors that influence the rates of absenteeism among nurse professionals. The study majored at following four hospitals: maternity, general, critical care unit as well as the pediatric hospital at King Saud Medical City and ascertain if aspects of the nurse, the work itself, manager, and organization have an influence on absenteeism rates.
Methods
The primary objective of the study was to ascertain the factors influencing absenteeism in nurses in Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted in various parts of the hospital including the general, pediatric hospital and others. A pilot study was carried out in above hospitals. Numerous methods were employed while collecting research.
Results
The data collected during the research was coded, fed, substantiated and analyzed with the help of a Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS-22) (latest fashion) installed into a personal computer. The average, median, standard deviation and range were calculated to ascertain the most leading contributor when it comes to nursing absenteeism. The rates of nurses from the ages of 20 to 30 were 26.22 while those over 30 years of age were 26.54. While doing the comparison between various factors, percentages were employed for precise data. In addition to that, a 5 percent level of significance (P≤0.05) was employed to gauge significant relationships between different factors. Descriptive statistics were of great help when during organization, summarizing, description, interpretation, and synthesis of data. This helped in differentiating the relationship between various factors and also during testing.
Discussion
Personal Factors
The discussion in this project will center on age, marital status, highest education, years of experience, job position, and gender.
Marital Status
From the study, nurses who had families had higher rates of absenteeism when compared to those who were not married. This is because the married nurse had to gather for their family needs, in many ways, therefore, they lacked time. Nurses who are single have all the time with them thus their rates of absenteeism are low.
Gender
When it comes to gender, females have a central role in improving skill shortages Saudi Arabian health institutions. The tendency of females combining their profession with marriage and parentage has influenced their career profoundly. From the results, absenteeism is higher in women when compared to males, and this can be attributed to the child-bearing years. Women have several responsibilities than men, for instance, that of caring homes, caring sick children, family caretaker, and wage earner. The many responsibilities put huge pressure on females, and at sometimes, because of strict work schedules in addition to inadequate childcare facilities, it is regarded that females have a high likelihood to remain at home to look after family members or sick children. This is true particularly during this era in which numerous illnesses are emerging.
On the other hand, some studies claim that the primary reasons why female nurses become more absent than males are that a large percentage of them experiences physical and mental concerns in addition to health concerns, even though this is something affecting both genders. A total of 580 females and 45 males participated in the survey and from the results, females were more absent than males. Frequently, female nurses are likely to carry out numerous tasks at once which in turn hinder their productivity as well as their attendance at their places of work. This is what has been experienced by most hospitals in Saudi Arabia. As a result of all these responsibilities, female nurse’s absenteeism rates become so high than those of males working at the same hospitals.
Age
As per the research, age has some influence on absenteeism of nurses. Older nurses (30 years and above) have a higher absenteeism rate than those between 20 to 30 years. The reason which can lead to this result is that younger nurses are still committed to their work. According to earlier research, absenteeism of nurses at work is likely to increase as age increases since nurses’ stand during their work. Some studies found out that young nurses are more energetic than the elderly and in that case, they can stand for long hours while doing their work. Additionally, young nurses enjoy their work more than the older, and as a result, their rates of absenteeism at work is low than the old.
To the contrary, another research carried out by Martocchio demonstrated that younger nurses frequently display high rates of absenteeism than their older colleagues. This investigation revealed that the absenteeism rates of female nurse’s peaks between the ages of 25 and 34 and then drop between the ages of 35 and 44. Those over the ages of 55 have the lowest rates of absenteeism which is contrary to the findings of this project (Davey, Cummings, NEWBURN‐COOK & Lo, 2009). The project by Martocchio further goes ahead to point out that the incidence of men’s absenteeism rates fluctuates in young men and peaks in the elderly. This brings some confusion since other studies state that young males are susceptible to sickness leave than older men. This means that their absenteeism rate is higher than that of older males. This contradicts this research.
Job Position
Job position matters in nurses’ absenteeism as those in high ranks have low absenteeism rates than those in regular positions. Those in top positions have low absenteeism rates since they see their jobs to be of high importance. Thus they have high satisfaction rates which make them attend work without missing.
Highest Education
This influenced absenteeism to some extent. Nurses with a Bachelors have high rates of absenteeism than those with a diploma. The reason behind this is that nurse with a diploma tries to be dedicated, so that increase their competitiveness on individuals with high education. On the other hand, nurses with bachelors and above are not satisfied with their work. This is because they qualify for many different positions in other healthcare sectors.
Years of Experiences
Nurses with many years of experience had high rates of absenteeism than those with few years of experience. The primary reason for this case is that fresh nurses seek more experience for them to be absorbed into these hospitals. These make them loyal hence they rarely miss.
Manager’s Characteristics
The research concerning the features of the managers is centered on various management leadership approaches and its influence on absenteeism rates.
Nurse Manager’s Leadership Styles
Leadership is a plastic and vigorous practice that an individual’s skills, power as well as power impact the actions and thoughts of healthcare practitioners to do their work to their best. Therefore, nurse manager’s leadership styles matter a lot as it influences job satisfaction which motivates or demotivates employees. As the leader in a unit, the leader of the nurses acts as the head of that specific unit of the healthcare. His/her responsibilities are to inspire, motivate, and instruct the juniors on issues relating to their performance of duties.
Autocratic Leadership Style
In an authoritarian style of leadership, junior nurses become stressed, and this affects communication with their leaders. Autocratic leaders make decisions by themselves and employ the top down method which juniors have no room to contribute to decision making. Similarly, autocratic leaders often use coercion when exercising their power (Mosadeghrad, Ferlie & Rosenberg, 2011). This makes nurses to lack enthusiasm, and this causes them to depict arrogant compliant conduct, which makes them unproductive in their work. This also causes increased absenteeism.
Laissez-Faire Style of Leadership
This leadership technique is another aspect which contributes to the rates of low turnover in nurses. This kind of leadership offers little or no guidance, leading to a passive tactic where subordinates avoid their leaders causing minimal contact. Because of this leadership style, nursing staff become frustrated, confused, and lack direction. Since there is minimal communication between the management and the nurses, crucial information lacks to reach the recipient. Staff becomes less interested, less satisfied, and compounded with no or negative feedback makes things to be worse and results in absenteeism. This can be one of the factors leading to high absenteeism rates in Saudi Arabia general hospitals.
Participative Management
Participative management, on the other hand, reduces absenteeism rates since it enables the subordinate staff and the administration to have a discussion before deciding anything in the organization. In this kind of leadership technique, the supervisor and the subordinate have a say when it comes to decision making. For managers to motivate the subordinate staff well, they must help them to have knowledge on ways that make them fit into the company’s plans and become aware of their responsibility. This raises staff confidence, boasts self-efficacy and thus led to a reduction in absenteeism.
Work Characteristics
Work characteristics comprise job satisfaction; group cohesion, workload, the autonomy of nurses and routinization.
Job Satisfaction
Worker’s job satisfaction and obligation to the job have for a long time been found to reduce turnover intentions and absenteeism rates. From early research, job dissatisfaction has been linked to low productivity, poor performance, exhaustion, and increased staff absenteeism. These factors cause increased expenses in an organization. As per Pillay, the many reasons for increased absenteeism and a decrease in quality of products and services in a health facility are job insecurity and job dissatisfaction. The study further pointed out that nurses at their middle ages are more dissatisfied with their jobs.
Workload
Heavy workloads and general job demands, deadlines need to be meet, excessive duties, demand on standards, poor time management, lack of support, long working hours and requirements due to resource issues causes stress that in turn led to burnout that increases low turnover. Too many responsibilities caused low job satisfaction, poor quality of services and heightened cases of absenteeism. Davey, Cummings, NEWBURN‐COOK & Lo (2009) asserts that nurses feel disappointed while at work. That is why the rates of absenteeism in this research is high when it comes to the aspect of work. This causes burnout and thus high rates of absenteeism.
Characteristics of the Organization
The climate of healthcare institutions is influenced by shared views of institution’s guidelines, practices, and rules, both informal and formal. The results of this project reveal that the characteristics of the organizations influence workers’ absenteeism rates irrespective of age or gender. The aspects of the organization that profoundly affect the rate of absenteeism comprise compensation promotional opportunities, incentive programs, and absence control policies.
Conclusion
Absenteeism in all organizations including the health sector is an expensive issue, which has been overlooked by management. One major indirect result of this condition is that it causes other employees to carry out extra duties in order to gather for all patients. Different factors, as well as consequences resulting from nurse absenteeism, were analyzed and pinpointed in this research, for instance, nurse characteristics and expenses incurred when replacing employees. The primary objective of this study was to ascertain factors affecting nurse’s turnover attached to the general hospital at Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Numerous factors influenced the rates of absenteeism in nurses in Saudi Arabia general hospital. This includes lack of motivation, the unfriendly environment comprising of colleagues and management, high workload, long working hours, lack of equipment, level of education, unfair promotion, lack of reward mechanism, and years of experience. Additionally, some factors have a strong influence while others have minimal. This affects the health sector more adding to the backdrop of mechanical resource and human shortage.
To reduce further effects resulting from absenteeism of nurses, nurse managers, and health sector leaders should act in support of the subordinates to create an environment which is favorable for all employees including those at the lowest levels. From this research, different views regarding the factors influencing nurse absenteeism are revealed. The study also highlighted absenteeism as one of the growing concerns for many organizations in the healthcare sector even though a lot of research has been carried out on the same. For healthcare facilities to combat the complicated problems resulting from absenteeism, it is crucial for them to understand all the factors and the causes.

References
Davey, M. M., Cummings, G., NEWBURN‐COOK, C. V., & Lo, E. A. (2009). Predictors of nurse absenteeism in hospitals: a systematic review. Journal of nursing management, 17(3), 312-330.
Mosadeghrad, A. M., Ferlie, E., & Rosenberg, D. (2011). A study of relationship between job stress, quality of working life and turnover intention among hospital employees. Health Services Management Research, 24(4), 170-181.