ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Absence from work, also referred to as absenteeism is the desertion of work by an employee or lack of employee’s presence at work at the scheduled time even if the reasons for absence or desertion are legitimate. Health Care Workers are the bedrock of hospitals thus, their absence from work can affect organization of health services, cause dissatisfaction and work overload among their colleagues present at work ultimately leading to poor quality of care provided to patients.9,10 Absenteeism has been found to be a major setback for Primary Health Care Centres (PHCCs) as both paramedical and medical staff of the PHCCs fail to attend work regularly.
OBJECTIVES: The aim is to assess absenteeism among PHC workers in Benin City with a view of making recommendations to PHC providers that will facilitate improved service delivery and better care of patients.
METHOD: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out among 422 Healthcare workers selected using multi-stage sampling technique from November 2019 to November 2020. Data was collected using an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire. Data was obtained and analyzed using IBM SPSS version 22.0. Analysis employed descriptive and inferential statistics. Level of significance was set at 5%.
RESULTS: Out of 422 participants, 190 were nurses (49.50%) and 149 were midwives (38.8%). Result from the study showed that majority 380 (99.9%) of respondent are aware of absenteeism among healthcare workers. 89.8% of the respondents had a good knowledge of absenteeism. Level of education was a factor that was found to have significant association with absenteeism (p < 0.05). Findings from this study also revealed that prevalence of absenteeism was more among the female respondents. Age of respondents was found to have significant association with prevalence of absenteeism (p ˃ 0.05). The study showed that lack of motivation was the major factor leading to absenteeism among health care workers. Other factors included poor leadership and misunderstood sick leave policy.
CONCLUSION: The study concluded that absenteeism is more prevalent among female health care workers in Benin city. Primary health care givers will always require time away from work. Reward for good attendance and improved remuneration will help correct this attitude
