Introduction Presenteeism is defined as going to work despite having medical conditions that suggest one should be absent. There is dearth of studies on presenteeism among nurses globally, especially in Africa, and Nigeria inclusive. This study therefore assessed the prevalence of presenteeism and its associated factors among nurses at a teaching hospital in Nigeria.

Methods A Cross-sectional study was carried out among nurses (317) at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Nigeria (August 2015 to July 2016). Inclusion criteria were nurses, who had worked in direct assistance to patients, gave their consent and had spent at least one year in the service of the hospital. Stratified random sampling technique was utilised. Pre-tested, self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Minimum Sample size calculated was 317. Data was analysed using IBM SPSS Version 21.0. Ethical approval was gotten and confidentiality was ensured during the study.

Results The response rate was 100% and the mean age of the respondents was 41.9±9.2 years. In the last 12 months, 242 (76.3%) respondents had reported to work sick and out of these 77 (31.8%) had reported twice, 48 (19.8%) had reported seven times while 32 (13.2%) had reported thrice. Several reasons were given for going to work sick. Age, marital status, years worked in the hospital, nursing cadre, highest level of qualification and level of job satisfaction were found to be associated with presenteeism (p<0.05).

Discussion The high prevalence of presenteeism in this study could be attributed to high level of job satisfaction and heavier workload after a sick leave. Among the respondents that had reported to work sick in the last 12 months, malaria was the commonest condition. Nigeria is a malaria endemic region. It is recommended that the management of the hospital pay closer attention to the consequences of nurses’ presenteeism.