bims-cieche 2025-05-25 papers

Issue of 2025–05–25
two papers selected by
Jonas Stefaan Steel, IDEWE

J Nurs Scholarsh. 2025 May 21.

Relationship Between Musculoskeletal Disorders and Productivity Loss Among Hospital Nurses: An Analytical Cross-Sectional Study With Secondary Data Analysis.

Minkyung Kang, Inah Kim, Chang Park, Ari Min.

AIM: To identify the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders among hospital nurses and explore their effects on productivity loss.
DESIGN: An analytical cross-sectional study with secondary data analysis was conducted.
METHODS: Data were collected via an online survey of 607 registered nurses working in general and tertiary hospitals in South Korea. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the association between musculoskeletal disorders and four productivity loss indicators: absenteeism, presenteeism, perceived productivity loss, and work limitations.
RESULTS: Musculoskeletal disorders were highly prevalent among hospital nurses, with 83.9% of participants reporting musculoskeletal disorder symptoms in the past week. Lower back complaints had the highest prevalence. Nurses with musculoskeletal disorders were 3.74 times more likely to experience presenteeism than those without musculoskeletal disorders. They were also 3.00 times more likely to report perceived productivity loss and 2.24 times more likely to experience work limitations. However, no significant relationship was observed between musculoskeletal disorders and absenteeism.
CONCLUSION: Musculoskeletal disorders contribute to presenteeism, productivity loss, and work limitations among hospital nurses. Targeted interventions for preventing and managing musculoskeletal disorders are essential to mitigate productivity losses and improve nurses' health and job performance. Strategies such as ergonomic workplace modifications, early detection, and effective management of musculoskeletal disorders can help maintain nurses' productivity and well-being.
CLINICAL RELEVANCE: Addressing musculoskeletal disorders is critical for enhancing nurse productivity and for ensuring the delivery of high-quality patient care. Healthcare organizations can safeguard nurses' health and patient outcomes by reducing presenteeism and work limitations.

Keywords: absenteeism; musculoskeletal disorder; nurses; presenteeism; productivity; work limitation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jnu.70020

Pharmacoeconomics. 2025 May 23.

Are Economic Evaluations of Task Shifting Too Narrow in Focus? A Rapid Review.

Peter Murphy, Susan Griffin, Helen Fulbright, Simon Walker.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Task shifting between different cadres of health worker has been proposed as an approach to address workforce shortages. Whether such reallocation is a useful strategy for a health system depends on the potential costs and consequences. Too narrow a focus has implications for population health as resources could be incorrectly directed towards inefficient activities owing to important costs and/or benefits being omitted from the evaluation. We aim to identify the key issues when evaluating the value for money of task shifting and review the applied literature to determine whether it is fit for purpose.
METHODS: We developed an a priori logic model of task shifting and searched five databases (MEDLINE, Embase, EconLit, Social Sciences Citation Index and CEA Registry) for economic evaluations of task shifting published between 2014 and 2024. We performed forwards and backwards citation searching. We considered the scope of the evaluations with respect to the ability to capture key costs and outcomes of task shifting from the logic model. Reporting quality was assessed using the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) checklist.
RESULTS: The rapid review identified 26 studies for inclusion covering 16 countries. Studies evaluated task shifting to community health workers and lay health workers as well as from doctors to radiographers, non-physician clinicians and nurse-midwives. The studies included health costs and outcomes but few included changes in the capacity of the workforce to undertake tasks, access, waiting times, productivity, burden on other staff, patient satisfaction, patient productivity and health equity concerns. There was a predominance for cost-effectiveness analysis to be used to assess the value for money of task shifting but the literature did include a cost-benefit analysis, a cost-consequence analysis and an extended cost-effectiveness analysis.
CONCLUSIONS: The majority of studies identified a range of costs and consequences that may only be appropriate for resource allocation under the strong assumption that all longer term costs and consequences would be unaffected by the task shift.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-025-01507-x