Coverage of hospital nursing absenteeism in the composition of the Technical Safety Index: is 6.67% sufficient?

To map scientific evidence on the (in)adequacy of the Technical Safety Index provided by the Federal Nursing Council to cover absenteeism rates in Brazilian hospital nursing.

Scoping review conducted according to Joanna Briggs Institute criteria. The search was carried out in February 2024, in the sources: Virtual Health Library, Scientific Electronic Library Online, Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, CAPES Periodical Portal and Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. Cross-sectional studies conducted in the hospital environment, published between 2004 and 2024, were included. After selecting the recruited material (n=1,297), the sample (n=29) was analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Of the selected studies, 86.2% indicated superiority in the percentage of absence coverage recommended by the entity. Absenteeism rates ranged from 0% to 44.7% among nurses and from 0.47% to 46% among technicians/assistants. The estimated technical safety index ranged from 8.3% to 53% for nurses and from 8.77% to 54.3% for mid-level professionals.

There is evidence to support that the minimum percentage of absenteeism coverage (6.7%) provided for by the regulatory entity is not sufficient, especially in the context of public hospitals.