Background: Job stress and presenteeism are perplexing issues in the nursing profession during
the crisis of COVID-19 pandemic that must receive increasing attention. Aim: It aimed to assess the
job stress and presenteeismprevalence, as well as verify the association between two concepts among
nursing staff during the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019. Design: It utilized a descriptive,
correlational design. Setting: It was conducted in the Main Tanta University and Emergency
Hospitals. Subjects: All nursing staff (503), who had a Diploma, Bachelor of Sciences, or Master of
Sciences in nursing. Tools:The questionnaire involved nursing staff's demographic data, the adapted
Extended Nursing Stress Scale, the Presenteeism Prevalence Questionnaire, and the Stanford
Presenteeism Scale.Results: The organizational factors were the dominant reasons for presenteeism
among nursing staff rather than the personal factors. Workload, inadequate emotional preparation,
death and dying, and conflict with supervisors were the most prominent factors for causing stress.
Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between job stress factors and nursing staff's perception
of presenteeism. Conclusion: Presenteeism behavior is evidence for organizational risk-taking
behavior with diverse implications in the nursing profession, in which the nursing staff perceived a
high level of job stress associated with a high prevalence of presenteeism behavior during the
coronavirus pandemic. Recommendations: Develop a policy and practices with more guidelines to
avoid the vagueness regarding what nursing staff should do while sick. Moreover, promoting the
coping strategies and conflict resolution for managing job stress among nursing staff to reduce
presenteeism behavior.