Development and validation of a questionnaire predicting individual differences in time to return to work after injury

Across many occupational settings, workers who are injured on the job receive a percentage of their lost earnings as they recover during the time they are unable to work. At the time of injury, trained professionals assign each of these injured workers an expected return date based on the severity of their injury. Currently, case workers rely solely on intuition about who they believe will be a slow versus fast returner to formulate different strategies for managing individual cases; despite the financial and psychological burden which can be levied on injured workers who return to work too quickly, or not quickly enough, to date, there exists no single validated questionnaire to assist case workers in their determination. This is the aim of the current research. This research will benefit Candian workers and the partner organization by helping case managers optimize strategies geared towards helping injured workers return to work safely and in a timely manner that is appropriate for the timecourse of their particular injury.

Faculty Supervisor:

Frances Chen

Student:

Alec Beall

Partner:

Sentis

Discipline:

Psychology

Sector:

Other

University:

University of British Columbia