Background Sickness absence and presenteeism become a concern on workplaces (Suzuki et al., 2015). Presentism is the presence of employees at work even when they are sick (Paschoalin et al., 2013). Among nurses, presenteeism prejudices patients, since nurses can’t perform job tasks with their entire capacities (Santos, 2014). As a multifactorial phenomenon, presenteeism associates with burnout (Ferreira & Martinez, 2012). However, engagement can be a protective factor, since it is opposed to burnout (Bakker et al., 2014).

Aims To identify presenteeism, burnout and engagement levels among nurses, to analyse the correlation between these three variables searching burnout and engagement as predictors of presenteeism, and to verify their variations according socio-demographic and professional characteristics.

Method A study was realised, using nursing professionals from Portugal, Spain and Brazil. Preliminary results from 299 Portuguese nurses (67% from hospitals, 64% working by shifts; 67% with a definitive job contract, mean age of 34.5 years, mean job experience of 11.2 years, 77% female) were collected using anonymous questionnaires composed by Portuguese versions of SPS6 (Koopman et al., 2002; Ferreira et al., 2010), MBI and UWES (Maslach & Jackson, 1997; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003; Marques-Pinto & Picado, 2011).

Results Job was considered stressful by 78%; presenteeism was moderated (M = 3.4 on 1–5 scale); moderated emotional exhaustion (M = 2.7 on 0–6 scale), low depersonalization (M = 1.0), high personal accomplishment (M = 4.5); engagement dimensions were high (vM = 4.3, dedication M = 4.4, absorption M = 4.1 on 0–6 scale). Differences of presenteeism, burnout and engagement were found, according sex, shifts, job place and job stress perception. Correlations were found and presenteeism was predicted by 21% of burnout, and 6% of job characteristics. Individual characteristics and engagement are not significand predictors.

Conclusions These results support the need to implement continuous improvement programs promoting workers’ safety and „well-„being. Occupational health services have an important role to disseminate prevention programs. The INT-SO project alerts for this phenomenon among nurses on Portugal, Spain and Brazil.