Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Christine E. Davis
I have noticed that during the last 3 months it seems that every fellow nurse that I am
working with has been sick. I am interested to find out if nurses are coming in to work while they
are sick, called presenteeism. I wonder how much of my patients’ illnesses are caused by us
nurses that are treating them. My building has a locked down Alzheimer’s unit, a transitional
care unit (Iv’s, wound vacs, wound care and rehabilitation), and the other 50% is long term
living. I will be asking all the nurses that have worked in the building (1 year or more) if they
have come to work sick just one time in that year. I am staying focused on sick as having a fever,
cough, and sore throat. I have asked our Director of Nursing, Unit Managers, Unit Supervisors,
Nurses and our LPN’s, a total of 30 nurses. I am only asking for a yes or no response. I will need
to stay unbiased for I will need the truth and for them to not feel that they are going to get
lectured on their answer. I don’t want to think differently of my co-workers. I think this will be
interesting in finding out the results, it is a huge problem that puts patients in grave danger.
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PERCENTAGE OF NURSES WHO WORK WHILE SICK
Health care providers in the surveys are Physicians, Nurse Practioners, pharmacists, and
nurses.
A large part of my building has long term patients, as nurses we are not designated to one
area of the building, we go where we are needed. These patients live in the building and have full
roam to go where ever they please. A survey was done in a long-term care (LTC) facility
examining the knowledge and attitude about protection in preventing respiratory viral
transmission infection among Health Care Personnel (HCP). 73 persons completed the survey
out of 170, 42% of those that responded work while sick and 56% claimed that their co-workers
worked while sick (O’Neil, 2017). These patients have a reason for being with us, either family
is unable to provide the care for them or the patient has extensive needs (most are wheelchair or
bed ridden) which we then provide their care. Already being in a weakened state of health what
conducted and 4 out of 10 worked while sick. Hospital-based HCP’s had the highest percentage
of working with influenza like illness (ILI) at 49.3%. ILI is defined as having a fever, cough and
sore throat. By occupation Physicians at 63.2% and pharmacists at 67.2% had the highest rate of
working with ILI during the 2014-2015 influenza season. Of the 414 respondents that worked
with ILI, 57.3 sought medical attention and of those 25.2% tested positive as having influenza
(Chiu, 2017). In our building we have a MD. and a NP. Monday through Friday. These
professionals in one day can be seeing up to 80% of the patients in our building. Hopefully they
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PERCENTAGE OF NURSES WHO WORK WHILE SICK
are following hand hygiene protocol and not passing anything to each person especially if they
A study of health care workers in a children’s hospital in Philadelphia has found that
83 % had come to work while sick at least once in the past year, even though almost all believed
that working while ill can endanger patients. 536 hospital workers were asked about how often
they came to work sick 80% of Doctors came to work sick and 70% of nurses came to work sick
(Szymczak, 2015). A sick child has a very weakened immune system knowing that these doctors
treat their patients while being sick is very harmful to the patient and families that are there with
Results of an anonymous survey during the peak of the 2016 influenza season, the HCP’s
that care for transplant recipients claimed that 92% of the 88 came to work with ILI, the nurses
were more likely to take time off (Mossad, 2017). Nurses are easier to replace and or the other
nurses to pick up that nurses’ duties. The doctors are the ones that treat and can change route of
treatment and need to be hands on to see how the patient is progressing. Being a transplant
recipient, the immune system is gone due to the medications that they are on to stop the body
With all these surveys the main reason for HCP’s coming to work was the obligation to
not let down their patients and co-workers. Here in the medical field we have obligations to help
people, it’s why we have chosen this profession. And the percentage of us possibly causing harm
is alarmingly high. As a nurse I feel we need to be caring for our patients, and that is an oath that
I took as I received my license to practice. What I have learned with this survey is that HCP’s
working while sick is high in every area of the medical field. This practice of HCP’s coming to
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PERCENTAGE OF NURSES WHO WORK WHILE SICK
work while sick is a very grave practice to each of the patients they come in contact with.
Effective teaching has a significant impact on patient health and safety. We all need to be
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My claim is that the proportion (P) of nurses that come to work sick is more than 75% in my
building. 30 nurses were asked a yes or no question of coming to work with fever, cough and
sore throat.
Ho: P = .75
q: 1-.75 = .25
Alpha = .05
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PERCENTAGE OF NURSES WHO WORK WHILE SICK
p = 1-.9713 = .0287
PIE CHART
3
10%
27
90%
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PERCENTAGE OF NURSES WHO WORK WHILE SICK
Bibliography
Chiu S., Black C.L., Yue X., Greby S.M., Laney A.S., Campbell A.P., de Perio M.A.
(2017). Working with influenza-like illness: Presenteeism among US health care
personnel during the 2014-2015 influenza season. American Journal of Infection
Control, 45 (11). pp. 1254-1258.
Mossad, S., Deshpande, A., Schramm, S., Liu, X., & Rothberg, M. (2017). Working Despite
Having Influenza-Like Illness: Results of An Anonymous Survey of Healthcare Providers
Who Care for Transplant Recipients. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 38(8),
966-969. doi:10.1017/ice.2017.91
O’Neil, C., Kim, L., Prill, M., Stone, N., Garg, S., Talbot, H., & Babcock, H. (2017). Preventing
Respiratory Viral Transmission in Long-Term Care: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices
of Healthcare Personnel. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 38(12), 1449-1456.
doi:10.1017/ice.2017.232
Szymczak, J., Smathers, S., Hoegg, C., (September 2015). Reasons Why Physicians and
Advanced Practice Clinicians Work While Sick A Mixed-Methods Analysis. AMA
Pediatric. 2015;169(9):815-821. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0684