Work-related disability in Canadian nurses

PURPOSE: To determine factors contributing to high registered nurse (RN) injury claim rates in Canadian hospitals. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study of secondary 1998-99 data for RNs (N = 8,044) in Ontario, Canada, linked at the hospital level (n = 127). METHODS: Descriptive statistics, correlations, and logistic regression analyses were conducted. RESULTS: The odds of a high RN lost-time claim rate increased by 70% for each quartile increase in the percentage of RNs reporting more than 1 hour of overtime per week. The odds of a high RN musculoskeletal lost-time claim rate decreased by 64% for every one unit increase in the hospital-level score on the nurse-physician relationship subscale. CONCLUSIONS: To retain and optimize scarce hospital nursing resources, strategies to address overtime, sick time, and nurse-physician relationships might provide fiscal and human benefits