What degree of work overload is likely to cause increased sickness absenteeism among nurses? Evidence from the RAFAELA patient classification system

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Volumn 57, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 286-295

  Rauhala, Auvo ^a   Kivimäki, Mika ^b,c   Fagerström, Lisbeth ^d   Elovainio, Marko ^e   Virtanen, Marianna ^c,f   Vahtera, Jussi ^c   Rainio, Anna Kaisa ^a   Ojaniemi, Kati ^g   Kinnunen, Juha ^h  

^a VAASA HOSPITAL DISTRICT   (Finland)

^b ROYAL FREE AND UNIVERSITY COLLEGE MEDICAL SCHOOL   (United Kingdom)

^c FINNISH INSTITUTE OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH   (Finland)

^d University of Applied Sciences   (Finland)

^e NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTE   (Finland)

^f UNIVERSITY OF HELSINKI   (Finland)

^g SOUTH OSTROBOTHNIA CENTRAL HOSPITAL   (Finland)

^h UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND   (Finland)

Author keywords

Acute hospital wards; Cohort study; Empirical research report; Nurses; Nurses' workload; Sickness absence RAFAELA system

Indexed keywords

EID: 33846231417     PISSN: 03092402     EISSN: 13652648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2006.04118.x     Document Type: Article

References (35)

1. Adams A. & Bond S. (2003) Staffing in acute hospital wards: part 2. Relationships between grade mix, staff stability and features of ward organizational environment. Journal of Nursing Management 11, 293-298.
2. Aiken L.H., Clarke S.P., Sloane D.M., Sochalski J. & Silber J.H. (2002) Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction. The Journal of the American Medical Association 288, 1987-1993.
3. Bryant C., Fairbrother G. & Fenton P. (2000) Professional issues. The relative influence of personal and workplace descriptors on stress. British Journal of Nursing 9, 876-880.
4. Buerhaus P.I., Staiger D.O. & Auerbach D.I. (2000) Implications of an aging registered nurse workforce. The Journal of the American Medical Association 283, 2948-2954.
5. Cavanagh S.J. & Coffin D.A. (1992) Staff turnover among hospital nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing 17, 1369-1376.
6. Fagerström L. (2000) Expert validation of the Oulu Patient Classification - a phase in the development of patient classification system, RAFAELA. Vard i Norden 20, 15-21.
7. Fagerström L. & Rainio A. (1999) Professional assessment of optimal nursing care intensity level: a new method of assessing personnel resources for nursing care. Journal of Clinical Nursing 8, 369-379.
8. Fagerström L. & Rauhala A. (2001) Finn Patient Classification - Benchmarking in Nursing Care. Pilot Report from the Year 2000. Suomen Kuntaliitto, Helsinki, Finland (in Finnish).
9. Fagerström L. & Rauhala A. (2003) Finn Patient Classification - Benchmarking in Nursing Care. Final report of the project 2000-2002. Suomen Kuntaliitto, Helsinki, Finland (in Finnish).
10. Fagerström L., Eriksson K. & Engberg I.B. (1999) The patient's perceived caring needs: measuring the unmeasurable. International Journal of Nursing Practice 5, 199-208.
11. Fagerström L., Rainio A., Rauhala A. & Nojonen K. (2000a) Professional assessment of optimal nursing care intensity level: a new method for resource allocation as an alternative to classical time studies. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences 14, 97-104.
12. Fagerström L., Rainio A., Rauhala A. & Nojonen K. (2000b) Validation of a new method for patient classification, the Oulu Patient Classification. Journal of Advanced Nursing 31, 481-490.
13. Fagerström L., Nojonen K. & Åkers A. (2002) Methodological triangulation as a validation method in the testing of the PAONCIL method. Journal of Nursing Science 14, 180-191 (in Finnish).
14. Ham C. (2003) Improving the performance of health services; the role of clinical leadership. The Lancet 361, 1978-1980.
15. Hegney D., Plank A. & Parker V. (2003) Nursing workloads: the results of a study of Queensland Nurses. Journal of Nursing Management 11, 307-314.
16. Janiszewski Goodin H. (2003) The nursing shortage in the United States of America: an integrative review of the literature. Journal of Advanced Nursing 43, 335-343.
17. Kaustinen T. (1995) The Development and Assessment of Nursing Care Intensity Classification at the Oulu University Central Hospital 1991-1993. Department of nursing science, Oulu University, Oulu, Finland (in Finnish).
18. Kivimäki M., Head J., Ferrie J.E., Shipley M.J., Vahtera J. & Marmot M.G. (2003a) Sickness absence as a global measure of health: evidence from mortality in the Whitehall II prospective cohort study. British Medical Journal 327, 364-369.
19. Kivimäki M., Elovainio M., Vahtera J. & Ferrie J.E. (2003b) Organisational justice and health of employees: prospective cohort study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 60, 27-33.
20. Kivimäki M., Forma P., Wikstrom J., Halmeenmäki T., Pentti J., Elovainio M. & Vahtera J. (2004) Sickness absence as a risk marker of future disability pension: the 10-town study. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 58, 710-711.
21. Kivimäki M., Head J., Ferrie J., Hemingway H., Shipley M.J., Vahtera J. & Marmot M.G. (2005) Working while ill as a risk factor for serious coronary events: the Whitehall II Study. American Journal of Public Health 95, 98-102.
22. Mark B.A. (2002) What explains nurses' perceptions of staffing adequacy? Journal of Nursing Administration 32, 234-242.
23. McVicar A. (2003) Workplace stress in nursing: a literature review. Journal of Advanced Nursing 44, 633-642.
24. Melchior M., Niedhammer I., Berkman L.F. & Goldberg M. (2003) Do psychosocial work factors and social relations exert independent effects on sickness absence? A six year prospective study of the GAZEL cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 57, 285-293.
25. Needleman J., Buerhaus P., Mattke S., Stewart M. & Zelevinsky K. (2002) Nurse-staffing levels and the quality of care in hospitals. The New England Journal of Medicine 346, 1715-1722.
26. Niedhammer I., Bugel I., Goldberg M., Leclerc A. & Gueguen A. (1998) Psychosocial factors at work and sickness absence in the Gazel cohort: a prospective study. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 55, 735-741.
27. North F.M., Syme S.L., Feeney A., Shipley M. & Marmot M. (1996) Psychosocial work environment and sickness absence among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. American Journal of Public Health 86, 332-340.
28. Rainio A. & Ohinmaa A. (2005) Assessment of nursing management and utilization of nursing resources with the RAFAELA patient classification system - case study from the general wards of one central hospital. Journal of Clinical Nursing 14, 674-684.
29. Rauhala A. & Fagerström L. (2004) Determining optimal nursing intensity: the RAFAELA method. Journal of Advanced Nursing 45, 351-359.
30. Rauhala A. & Fagerström L. Are nurses' assessments of their workload affected by non-patient factors? An analysis of the RAFAELA system. Journal of Nursing Management, in press.
31. Vahtera J., Kivimäki M. & Pentti J. (2001) The role of extended weekends in sickness absenteeism. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 58, 818-822.
32. Vahtera J., Pentti J. & Kivimäki M. (2004) Sickness absence as a predictor of mortality among male and female employees. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 58, 321-326.
33. Vingård E., Lindberg P., Josephson M., Voss M., Heijbel B., Alfredsson L., Stark S. & Nygren Å (2005) Long-term sick-listing among women in the public sector and its associations with age, social situation, lifestyle, and work factors: a three-year follow-up study. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 33, 370-375.
34. Voss M., Floderus B. & Diderichsen F. (2001) Physical, psychosocial, and organisational factors relative to sickness absence: a study based on Sweden Post. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 58, 178-184.
35. Voss M., Floderus B. & Diderichsen F. (2004) How do job characteristics, family situation, domestic work, and lifestyle factors relate to sickness absence? A study based on Sweden Post. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 58, 178-184.