Sickness absence among hospital nurses.

During the year ended March 31, 1957, all absences from duty, whether for sickness or non-sickness reasons, were recorded systematically for student, trained, and other nursing staff employed in the hospitals of the United Oxford Hospitals and the Oxford Regional Hospital Board. Altogether 6,232 persons (732 males and 5,500 females) were observed in 103 hospitals having almost 15,000 beds. The detailed analysis of the results is available elsewhere*; the purpose of the present paper is to give a brief summary of the more important and interesting findings relating to sickness.