Nursing theories developed to meet children's needs: a scoping review.
Ana Márcia Nóbrega Dantas, Renata Clemente Dos Santos-Rodrigues, José Nildo de Barros Silva Júnior and 3 others
PMID 36102780WHAT IT FOUND
Nursing theories for children were mostly practical, narrower frameworks and covered feeding, pain, asthma, diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, autism, intensive care, and family relationships.
They map care ideas, not tested patient outcomes.
Key findings
01The final sample was 21 articles describing nursing theories developed for child care.
02The review identified seven middle-range theories, five grounded theories, three theoretical models, three conceptual models, and one specific-situation theory.
03The mapped child needs included infant feeding, childhood pain, asthma, diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, Congenital Zika Syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, intensive care, premature babies, parent-child interaction, nurse-child relationship, and child consultation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The authors could access few documents before 1992, so older child-focused nursing theories may be underrepresented. The final sample was 21 articles; nine were from the United States and four from Brazil, so the map may not cover all settings. The review mapped theory development and did not test whether applying a theory improves child care.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by CAPES (Financing Code 001) and CNPq (Process 305208/2020-9).
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the list of nursing theories as evidence that any theory improves child outcomes. This review mapped 21 articles about theory development; it did not report patient outcome results.