This study investigated factors associated with absenteeism among nursing staff (N=219) at a long-term care facility. Four absenteeism measures were calculated from personnel records for each month of the year: no pay (the sum of unscheduled, unpaid sick, and leave without pay), part day (the sum of arrived late and left early), paid sick, and total. Analysis was undertaken on the arcsine transformed values to equalize variances. Independent variables were obtained from administrative records and included unit on which the nurse worked, whether or not the nurse was a registered nurse, part- or full-time status, shift, sex, marital status, number of tax exemptions, birth year, and year of employment. Absenteeism was found to be higher on one new unit than on other units, lower among registered nurses than among other nurses, lower among more senior nursing staff, and higher for employees with a greater number of exemptions taken. Absenteeism was also lower in the winter than at other times of the year. Seniority was the most important explanatory variable, but the effect was approximately linear. A hypothesized burnout pattern predicting that absenteeism would be low initially, would increase after one year, and would be low among nursing staff remaining for 2 years or longer was not found. (Author)