Nurses’ experiences and perceptions of unfinished nursing care: a qualitative systematic review protocol

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this review is to synthesize the findings of qualitative studies about the experiences and perceptions of nurses regarding unfinished nursing care. Introduction: The issue of unfinished nursing care is a widespread challenge globally, causing detrimental effects to both patients and health care practitioners. Despite its prevalence, there exists a dearth of qualitative evidence synthesis summarizing the reasons for unfinished nursing care, as well as the experiences of nurses. Inclusion criteria: This review will include studies exploring registered nurses’ and nurse managers’ experiences and perceptions of unfinished nursing care, utilizing qualitative methods. Our approach to qualitative methodology will be unrestricted, allowing for various designs, such as phenomenology, ethnography, grounded theory, action research, and feminist research. Only articles published in English or Chinese from 2001 onward will be included. Methods: Our search will encompass the following electronic databases for published and unpublished literature: MEDLINE (PubMed), PsycINFO (APA PsycNET), CINAHL (EBSCO), Web of Science, Embase (Elsevier), Science Direct (Elsevier), ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, GreyNet International, Google Scholar, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang Database, and Chinese Biomedicine Literature Database (CBM). To ensure thoroughness, manual searches of reference lists and citations of included studies will also be conducted. Two reviewers will extract relevant information, and quality validation will be conducted using the JBI critical appraisal checklist for qualitative research. Similar findings will be categorized through meta-aggregation to establish synthesized findings. Finally, each synthesized finding will be graded according to the JBI ConQual approach. Review registration: PROSPERO CRD42022368041