Missed nursing care common to emergency and intensive care settings: scoping review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.29352/mill0226.38886Keywords:
missed nursing care; nursing care omissions; emergency department; intensive careAbstract
Introduction: Scientific literature addresses the omission of nursing care in distinct contexts separately. Yet, critically ill patients are found in emergency departments and intensive care units, often moving between both contexts. Thus, to promote care quality and safety, it is vital to identify nursing care omissions common to these settings, their causes, their effects, and possible mitigation strategies.
Objetive: To map the available scientific evidence on missed nursing care common to emergency and intensive care settings.
Methods: We conducted a scoping review, gathering relevant works from various databases: Scopus, Medline, PubMed, CINAHL, MedicLatina and RCAAP. We included diverse works on missed nursing care in critically ill patients within the target contexts, its causes, its effects, and possible mitigation strategies. We only considered works with free access and written in Portuguese, English, or Spanish. The final sample comprised 14 articles.
Results: The sample’s analysis revealed several nursing care omissions common to both contexts (namely related to documentation and to the nurse-patient relationship) and their causes. Still, considerable shared effects/mitigation strategies were not found.
Conclusion: In the studied contexts, critically ill patients require highly complex care. This review allowed identifying missed nursing care common to the target settings and its causes. However, substantial shared effects/mitigation strategies were not detected.
Downloads
References
Ahansaz, N., Adib-Hajbaghery, M., & Baghaei, R. (2024). Missed nursing care and its relationship with nurses’ moral sensitivity: A descriptive-analytical study. BMC Nursing, 23(1), 169. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-01854-8
Alanazi, F. K., Lapkin, S., Molloy, L., & Sim, J. (2023). Healthcare-associated infections in adult intensive care units: A multisource study examining nurses’ safety attitudes, quality of care, missed care, and nurse staffing. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 78, 103480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iccn.2023.103480
Al-Mnaizel, E. A. M., & Al-Zaru, I. M. (2023). The relationship between nursing job satisfaction and missed nursing care in critical care units. Open Nursing Journal, 17. https://doi.org/10.2174/18744346-v17-230731-2023-73
Amritzer, M. A., Göransson, K. E., Berg, L. M., & Nymark, C. (2024). A new perspective on missed nursing care in the emergency department: A descriptive cross-sectional study. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 50(3), 392–402. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2023.12.006
Bispo, C. A., Rodrigues, A. J. P., Saldanha, R. R., & Santos, W. L. (2023). Atuação do enfermeiro na qualidade e segurança do paciente. Revista Gestão e Saúde, 6(13), 783. https://doi.org/10.55892/jrg.v6i13.783
Duhalde, H., Bjuresäter, K., Karlsson, I., & Bååth, C. (2023). Missed nursing care in emergency departments: A scoping review. International Emergency Nursing, 69, 101296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2023.101296
Ghezeljeh, T. N., Gharasoflo, S., & Haghani, S. (2021). The relationship between missed nursing care and teamwork in emergency nurses: A predictive correlational study. Nursing Practice Today, 8(2), 103–112. https://doi.org/10.18502/npt.v8i2.5121
Hendy, A., Abdel Fattah, H. A., Abouelela, M. A., Atia, G. A. E., Alshammari, M. S. S., Hables, R. M. M., Alzahrani, N. S., & Almarwani, A. M. (2024). Nursing professional commitment as a mediator of the relationship between work environment and missed nursing care among nurses: A cross-sectional analysis. SAGE Open Nursing, 10, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23779608231226063
Higgs, M., Fernandez, R., Polis, S., & Manning, V. (2020). Similarities and differences in nurse-reported care rationing between critical care, surgical, and medical specialties. Journal of Patient Safety, 16(3), E162–E168. https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000295
JBI Levels of Evidence and Grades of Recommendation Working Party. (2020). JBI levels of evidence. https://jbi.global/sites/default/files/2020-07/Supporting_Doc_JBI_Levels_of_Evidence.pdf
Kalisch, B. J., Landstrom, G. L., & Hinshaw, A. S. (2009). Missed nursing care: A concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 65(7), 1509–1517. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2009.05027.x
Liu, J., You, L., Zheng, J., Ross, A. M., & Liu, K. (2016). Effects of work environment on quality of care in ICUs: A multisite survey in China. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 31(3), E1–E8. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000160
Liu, J., Zheng, J., Liu, K., & You, L. (2019). Relationship between work environments, nurse outcomes, and quality of care in ICUs: Mediating role of nursing care left undone. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 34(3), 250–255. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000374
Mboya, E. A., Ndumwa, H. P., Amani, D. E., Nkondora, P. N., Mlele, V., Biyengo, H., Mashoka, R., Haniffa, R., Beane, A., Mfinanga, J., Sunguya, B. F., Sawe, H. R., & Baker, T. (2023). Critical illness at the emergency department of a Tanzanian national hospital in a three-year period 2019–2021. BMC Emergency Medicine, 23(1), 86. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12873-023-00858-y
Młynarska, A., Krawuczka, A., Kolarczyk, E., & Uchmanowicz, I. (2020). Rationing of nursing care in intensive care units. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(19), 6944. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17196944
Mohammadi, F., Souza Nogueira, L., Hanifi, N., & Bahraminejad, N. (2023). A comparison of nursing activity score means for missed care dimensions in intensive care unit patients. Nursing Forum, 58(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/9913092
Nantsupawat, A., Poghosyan, L., Wichaikhum, O., Kunaviktikul, W., Fang, Y., Kueakomoldej, S., Thienthong, H., & Turale, S. (2022). Nurse staffing, missed care, quality of care and adverse events: A cross‐sectional study. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(2), 447–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13501
Nobahar, M., Ameri, M., & Goli, S. (2023). The relationship between teamwork, moral sensitivity, and missed nursing care in intensive care unit nurses. BMC Nursing, 22(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01400-y
Pereira Lima Silva, R., Gonçalves Menegueti, M., Dias Castilho Siqueira, L., Araújo, T. R., Auxiliadora‐Martins, M., Mantovani Silva Andrade, L., & Laus, A. M. (2020). Omission of nursing care, professional practice environment and workload in intensive care units. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(8), 1986–1996. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13005
Santamaria, N., Creehan, S., Fletcher, J., Alves, P., & Gefen, A. (2019). Preventing pressure injuries in the emergency department: Current evidence and practice considerations. International Wound Journal, 16(3), 746–752. https://doi.org/10.1111/iwj.13092
Wakefield, B. J. (2014). Facing up to the reality of missed care. BMJ Quality & Safety, 23(2), 92–94. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2013-002489
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Millenium - Journal of Education, Technologies, and Health
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit proposals for this journal agree to the following terms:
a) Articles are published under the Licença Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0), in full open-access, without any cost or fees of any kind to the author or the reader;
b) The authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, allowing the free sharing of work, provided it is correctly attributed the authorship and initial publication in this journal;
c) The authors are permitted to take on additional contracts separately for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (eg, post it to an institutional repository or as a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal;
d) Authors are permitted and encouraged to publish and distribute their work online (eg, in institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as increase the impact and citation of published work
Documents required for submission
Article template (Editable format)
