Gli esiti dell’Assistenza Infermieristica in Terapia Intensiva: protocollo di ricerca di una scoping review = Nursing Sensitive Outcomes in the Intensive Care Unit: a scoping review protocol

ABSTRACT Introduction: driven by the current need of achieving high-reliability and patient-focused organization, several efforts have been enacted to date with the purpose of identifying and qualifying nurses’ contribution to Nursing Sensitive Outcomes (NSOs) in critical care. Although many studies have been conducted in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), the set of NSOs that should be considered while designing studies in the field are limited and have not been well defined to date. In this paper, we outline a scoping review protocol to map the characteristics of the studies on NSOs in ICU to inform future research in the field. Methods and analysis: this scoping review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute’s framework and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses - Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) statement. A search will be conducted through the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL, Joanna Briggs Library, MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, as well as grey literature sources. We will include all studies (a) focused on NSOs in adult critically ill patients admitted and cared for in an ICU and (b) published in English language, (c) with no limit on publication time frame. Two researchers will independently screen titles, abstracts and full-text for inclusion. Then, a pre-defined data extraction tool will be used to extract information from selected studies. Results will be presented in tabular and narrative form, providing a complete overview of the existing literature. Results dissemination: the scoping review will summarize the state of research by providing an overview of NSOs studied among patients cared for in ICU settings. This study constitutes the first step in a research agenda aimed at deepening and developing a set of NSOs reliable on critically ill patients and useful to proxy monitoring both the quality of care in hospital and the health-related quality of life of critically ill patients. The results of this study will be disseminated through professional meetings and conference presentations, as well as published in biomedical journals. Key words: intensive care unit, nursing care, nursing outcomes, nursing sensitive outcomes, scoping review.