Nurse Practitioner-Sensitive Outcome Measures in Older Person Care: A Scoping Review.
Michael Connolly, Anita Duffy, Fiona Lawler and 6 others
PMID 40237569WHAT IT FOUND
Nurse practitioner-sensitive outcomes for older adults are not measured consistently.
The review found varied outcome measures across included studies, so it cannot show what nursing care changed.
Key findings
01Five studies were selected for data extraction, and none of them collected the same outcome measurements.
02Complications or comorbidities were reported in all five studies, while quality of life was reported in three studies and risk assessment and medication management in two.
03No critical appraisal was conducted, so the methodological quality of the included studies was not assessed.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
No published protocol was available, so the review process may be less transparent. The search covered only seven electronic databases and English-language studies, so relevant studies may have been missed. The included studies were not critically appraised, so their methodological quality was not checked. Only five studies were included, and they used different outcome measures, so the evidence is sparse and hard to compare. The review focused on older person services, so findings may not apply to other populations or care settings. Some included studies did not define complications, comorbidities, or quality of life, so outcome meanings varied.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that nurse practitioner-led care improves outcomes for older adults. The review mapped outcome measures, did not appraise study quality, and found inconsistent measurement across included studies.