Womenʼs experiences of being in the sick leave process

Abstract

Background: Being on sick leave is a risky situation, with loss of meaningful activities, exclusion from the labour market and losing the worker role. Although the benefits of the person's active involvement in the sick leave process have been emphasized, an increase in sickness absence and longer sick leave periods is still seen, especially among women. Further studies are needed to more deeply understand the person's own view of the situation. Aims/Objectives: To explore the experiences of being on sick leave among a group of women. Methods: An explorative, qualitative design was used. The analysis was based on individual, semi-structured interviews with 13 women, using qualitative content analysis. Results: Three categories emerged that describe the women's experiences of the situation of being on sick leave: being regarded as an object, being supported and being engaged. The categories appeared as either barriers or enablers during the sick leave process. Conclusions: The sick leave process could be better understood through multiple dimensions, working at the individual, organizational and societal levels. Using occupation based models underlining the importance of the interaction between person, occupation (work activity) and the environment may contribute to elucidating the complexity in supporting options for the return to work.

Suffering out of sight but not out of mind – interpreting experiences of sick leave due to chronic pain in a community setting: a qualitative study

“…Our participants viewed their identities as challenged or under threat while on sick leave owing to chronic pain. This feeling is consistent with previous findings on the sick leave process due to other health conditions, expressed as being reduced as a person and not recognising oneself 15 or experiencing a changed self-perception. 18 Our participants depicted a strong connection between identity and work.…”

“…However, our participants reported feeling subservient and helpless, with their lives dependent on the goodwill of institutional gatekeepers. Previous research on sick leave has observed similar experiences, that is, instead of a partnership, the rules and regulations make the stakeholders become counterparts, leaving little flexibility for the person 15. But being on sick leave due to chronic pain was also interpreted as different from other health issues, mainly because of its invisibility and the lack of objective assessment of pain symptoms.…”

“… 13 In addition, being on sick leave negatively affects a person’s life. Research on the experiences of work absenteeism because of illness has been done in different populations and for different health conditions, revealing negative experiences including loss of identity, 15 social exclusion and a struggle to adapt to reduced work capacity. 16 Being on sick leave also led to feelings of uncertainty and insecurity, 17 stigma, helplessness and a loss of independence.…”

Capability to make well-founded decisions: an interview study of people with experience of sickness absence who have common mental disorders

“…Too much was left to the individual to decide, with the risk of not being able to make a decision, or choosing and doing too much. A better understanding of the different factors that contribute to the potential for increased return to work could be warranted [ 27 , 28 ]. Engaged professionals need to provide just the right information and planning related to the individual situation, and this could also be discussed in relation to ethical considerations [ 29 ].…”

Application of the Person–Environment–Occupation–Performance Model: A Scoping Review

“…The PEOP Model provided a framework for investigations of populations that need a stronger voice in occupational therapy research. For example, articles highlighted international perspectives from Iran (Akbarfahimi et al, 2020), Sweden (Andersson & Mårtensson, 2021;Johansson et al, 2021), Thailand (Chaimaha & Chinchai, 2016;Chaimaha et al, 2017;Chupradit et al, 2021), Australia/New Zealand (Maher et al, 2018;Wilson et al, 2013), Philippines (Caday et al, 2022), China (Wan et al, 2022, and the United Kingdom (Cordingley & Ryan, 2009;Maher et al, 2018). Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) perspectives were obtained in studies of underrepresented college students (Clifton & Taff, 2021;Shraga-Roitman et al, 2022), aging Puerto Ricans (Orellano-Colón et al, 2014, African American fathers (Pizur-Barnekow et al, Digital books (Bibb et al, 2012) Assistive devices for positioning and sleep (Ho & Siu, 2018) Design of equipment and devices (Naweed et al, 2020(Naweed et al, , 2022 Remote monitoring systems (Rich et al, 2020) Accessibility of online reservation system (Stasell & Bathje, 2021) Media distractions in the sleep environment (Yang & Smallfield, 2020) 2017), and African Americans with disabilities (Schulz et al, 2022).…”