Absenteeism and it’s causes in the context of oncology workers health: a scope review

Abstract

Introduction: The high pace of work, added to the physical and psychological demands, lead to stress in personal and work contexts, which causes people to withdraw from their work environments as one of the reasons mentioned for incapacitation for work. This reality has been widely observed in the hospital setting, possibly associated with problems related to compassion fatigue, usually in oncology services. The motivation of this study was to understand the reasons for absenteeism in oncology, and if this episode occurs due to the work process. Objective: Investigating the causes of absenteeism among professionals exposed to environmental risks in cancer hospitals. Methodology: This is a scope review on the theme of absenteeism, which indicates new directions for future investigations. A literature review was carried out based on three pillars: 1) The multidisciplinary work process in oncology and the risk of illness; 2) The absenteeism of health professionals in oncology; 3) The problem of the COVID-19 pandemic for health workers. Subsequently, the descriptors were chosen and based on them, searches were carried out in the electronic databases PUBMED, LILACS and SCOPUS. Results: A result of ten studies was obtained. It was found that the main disorders, which lead to incapacity for work and, in turn, absenteeism, were of psychic origin (depression and Burnout Syndrome) and of musculoskeletal origin. Conclusions: Texto das conclusões em inglêsThe double work shift was cited as a facilitating factor for the appearance of these disorders, where such scenarios do not incapacitate the worker to develop their activities, which may be temporary or permanent.