The JOINT model of nurse absenteeism and turnover: a systematic review

Absenteeism and turnover among healthcare workers have a significant impact on overall healthcare system performance. The literature captures variables from different levels of measurement and analysis as being associated with attendance behavior among nurses. Yet, it remains unclear how variables from different contextual levels interact to impact nurses' attendance behaviors.

The purpose of this review is to develop an integrative multilevel framework that optimizes our understanding of absenteeism and turnover among nurses in hospital settings.

We therefore systematically examine English-only studies retrieved from two major databases, PubMed and CINAHL Plus and published between January, 2007 and January, 2013 (inclusive).

Our review led to the identification of 7619 articles out of which 41 matched the inclusion criteria. The analysis yielded a total of 91 antecedent variables and 12 outcome variables for turnover, and 29 antecedent variables and 9 outcome variables for absenteeism. The various manifested variables were analyzed using content analysis and grouped into 11 categories, and further into five main factors: Job, Organization, Individual, National and inTerpersonal (JOINT). Thus, we propose the JOINT multilevel conceptual model for investigating absenteeism and turnover among nurses.

The JOINT model can be adapted by researchers for fitting their hypothesized multilevel relationships. It can also be used by nursing managers as a lens for holistically managing nurses' attendance behaviors.