Reducing sick leave of Dutch vocational school students: adaptation of a sick leave protocol using the intervention mapping process.

Objectives: Since the extent of sick leave and the problems of vocational school students are relatively large, we aimed to tailor a sick leave protocol at Dutch lower secondary education schools to the particular context of vocational schools.
Methods: Four steps of the iterative process of Intervention Mapping (IM) to adapt this protocol were carried out: (1) performing a needs assessment and defining a program objective, (2) determining the performance and change objectives, (3) identifying theory-based methods and practical strategies and (4) developing a program plan. Interviews with students using structured questionnaires, in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders, a literature research and, finally, a pilot implementation were carried out.
Results: A sick leave protocol was developed that was feasible and acceptable for all stakeholders. The main barriers for widespread implementation are time constraints in both monitoring and acting upon sick leave by school and youth health care.
Conclusions: The iterative process of IM has shown its merits in the adaptation of the manual 'A quick return to school is much better' to a sick leave protocol for vocational school students.