Objective To explore the mediating effect of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between clinical nurses'presenteeism and turnover intention.Methods A total of 506 clinical nurses from 4 grade-a hospitals in He'nan Province were surveyed using the general information questionnaire,Stanford Presenteeism Scale-6,Emotional Exhaustion Scale and Turnover Intention Scale.Results The total score of clinical nurses'presenteeism,emotional exhaustion,turnover intention were(14.64±4.64),(12.72±6.50)and(8.52±3.47),respectively.Presenteeism of clinical nurses showed a significantly positive correlation with emotional exhaustion(r=0.584,P<0.001),as well as turnover intention(r=0.442,P<0.001).The total score of emotional exhaustion was positively correlated with turnover intention(r=0.473,P<0.001).Structural equation model showed that emotional exhaustion significantly mediated the relationship between presenteeism and turnover inten-tion,accounting for 45.22% of the total effect.Conclusion Clinical nurses'presenteeism is in the lower middle level.Emotional exhaustion plays a mediating role between presenteeism and turnover intention among clinical nurses.Nursing managers can reduce nurses'turnover inten-tion by addressing presenteeism and preventing emotional exhaustion in the workplace.