The demotivating impact of absenteeism in nursing homes.

Aim: The study explores how prevailing absenteeism frustrates or thwarts nurses' and nursing assistants' basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness), using self-determination theory.

Background: Our study responds to the call to investigate how organisational characteristics influence employees' psychological need, satisfaction and their attitudes and behaviours.

Method: We conducted a semantic analysis of the discourse of 42 nurses and nursing assistants working in nursing homes for older dependent people in France.