Nursing care directed to burned patients: a scoping review.
Pâmela Cristine Piltz Costa, Camila Schirmer Barbosa, Cristiano de Oliveira Ribeiro and 3 others
PMID 37377314WHAT IT FOUND
Nursing care for adult burn patients centres on wound assessment, pain control, and dressing changes.
Evidence for specific interventions like music therapy or enzymatic debridement is limited to a small number of studies, mostly case reports.
Key findings
01Pain management and wound care, particularly dressing changes, are the primary nursing interventions identified in the literature.
02Non-pharmacological techniques such as music therapy and aromatherapy were reported to reduce pain and anxiety during dressing changes.
03The evidence base is weak, with five of the nine included studies being case studies and only two being randomized clinical trials.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included only nine studies, which is a very small sample for a scoping review. Most included studies were case reports or case series, which provide low-level evidence and cannot establish efficacy. The search was restricted to studies published between 2016 and 2021, potentially missing older but relevant evidence. Grey literature such as theses, dissertations, and manuals were excluded, which may have omitted practical clinical guidelines. The review did not perform a meta-analysis or assess the risk of bias in the included studies beyond simple level-of-evidence grading.
Declared interests
No conflicts of interest or funding sources were explicitly stated in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the reported benefits of music therapy, aromatherapy, or specific dressings as proven efficacy. These findings come from a small number of low-quality studies, mostly case reports, and the review itself notes that the literature is scarce and lacks methodological impact.