Job stress and humanistic care characteristics among Chinese nurses: The mediating role of presenteeism

Aim: This study aims to explore the relationships between job stress, presenteeism, and humanistic care characteristics among nurses in China, as well as the mediating role of presenteeism. Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: From September to December 2023, a questionnaire survey was conducted among 1027 clinical nurses recruited from 15 tertiary Grade A hospitals in China using a convenient sampling method. The structural equation model was constructed with AMOS 23.0 and tested by the bootstrap method. Results: The humanistic care score was 123.31 ± 18.84. Presenteeism and job stress were negatively correlated with humanistic care characteristics ( r ₁ = -0.282, r ₂ = -0.267; p < 0.01), and presenteeism was positively correlated with job stress ( r = 0.461, p < 0.01). Job stress negatively predicted humanistic care characteristics, with a total effect of (β = -0.293, p < 0.001). Presenteeism played a partial mediating role between job stress and humanistic care characteristics, and the mediating effect was (β = -0.108, p < 0.001), accounting for 36.9% of the total effect. Conclusions: Job stress is an important factor affecting and predicting humanistic care characteristics, and presenteeism serves as the mediating variable between job stress and humanistic characteristics. Implications for Nursing Management: Managers should pay attention to nurses' job stress and mental health maintenance and focus more on their presenteeism. Positive measures such as establishing a psychological care mechanism and providing effective emotional support should be implemented. Moreover, education and training can be combined with clinical practice through emotional education, experiential teaching, situational role simulation, and psychological intervention to improve nurses' humanistic care and make them more willing to practice humanistic care. Patient or Public Contribution: None.