Development of a job-specific FCE protocol: the work demands of hospital nurses as an example

Musculoskeletal disorders often result in employee disability leaves and sickness-related absenteeism in the workplace. Professional evaluations of an employee's capacity to work require additional support by means of Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) methods. However, most FCE methods assess general physical capacity and, because of fixed test procedures, testing times range between 4 and 6 h for up to several days. For return to work (vocational rehabilitation), the tests need to reflect the employees' specific work demands more precisely. This study aims to develop a job-specific FCE protocol on the Ergos Work Simulator for hospital nurses. In developing the contents of this specific protocol, hierarchical task analyses were performed with 20 nurses in four departments of a university medical center. A job-specific test protocol was developed that consisted of five steps. In this process, the original test protocol was analyzed first. Secondly, categorization of physical risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders revealed 16 possible combinations of activity, posture, and load. Finally, duration and frequencies during one working day of these combinations were coupled to the Ergos test panels. The nurse-specific test protocol lasts 90 min. It was possible to develop a job-specific protocol, using on-site observations as the input. Compared to the original Ergos protocol, the external validity of the new job-specific protocol has improved: it simulates the functional capacity that nurses need to perform their job in a realistic way. The testing time of the original Ergos protocol is four times longer compared to the new job-specific protocol.