IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i16p8336-d609729.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Healthcare Professional Presenteeism during a COVID-19 Outbreak in an Australian Rural Healthcare Environment: A Case Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Kathleen Tori

    (School of Nursing, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston 7250, Australia)

  • Thi Thuy Ha Dinh

    (School of Nursing, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston 7250, Australia)

  • Carey Mather

    (School of Nursing, College of Health and Medicine, University of Tasmania, Launceston 7250, Australia)

Abstract

The recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural Australia is well documented. The COVID-19 pandemic has further exposed the precariousness of human healthcare resources within small rural communities. The external disaster of the COVID-19 outbreak described in this case analysis exacerbated the frail balance of sustaining adequate staffing levels and skill mix, which exposed behaviours of presenteeism within rural healthcare teams. An analysis of the complex of factors that led to the first nosocomial outbreak of COVID-19 within a healthcare environment in Australia demonstrates how rural healthcare environments are ill-equipped to meet the demands of unexpected external disasters. Using the Haddon Matrix to examine the factors that led to this outbreak provides us with the opportunity to learn from the case analysis. Health professional presenteeism contributed to the North West Tasmania COVID-19 outbreak and affected the hospital and health service provision within the region. Recommendations to mitigate risk for future disaster planning in rural healthcare environments include improved infection control strategies and a whole-community approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathleen Tori & Thi Thuy Ha Dinh & Carey Mather, 2021. "Healthcare Professional Presenteeism during a COVID-19 Outbreak in an Australian Rural Healthcare Environment: A Case Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(16), pages 1-9, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8336-:d:609729
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8336/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8336/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Caterina Schug & Franziska Geiser & Nina Hiebel & Petra Beschoner & Lucia Jerg-Bretzke & Christian Albus & Kerstin Weidner & Eva Morawa & Yesim Erim, 2022. "Sick Leave and Intention to Quit the Job among Nursing Staff in German Hospitals during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(4), pages 1-15, February.
    2. Sari Mansour & Malik Faisal Azeem & Maureen Dollard & Rachael Potter, 2022. "How Psychosocial Safety Climate Helped Alleviate Work Intensification Effects on Presenteeism during the COVID-19 Crisis? A Moderated Mediation Model," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Carlos Laranjeira & Filipa Pereira & Ana Querido & Marion Bieri & Henk Verloo, 2022. "Contributing Factors of Presenteeism among Portuguese and Swiss Nurses: A Qualitative Study Using Focus Groups," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(14), pages 1-19, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8336-:d:609729. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.