RNSystematic ReviewResearch in nursing & health2020

Optimizing patients' functional status during daily nursing care interventions: A systematic review.

Carolien C J M M Verstraten, Silke F Metzelthin, Lisette Schoonhoven and 2 others

PMID 32829518

WHAT IT FOUND

Multicomponent daily nursing care interventions that assess function, set goals, make individual plans, and involve patients in activities reported improvement in functional status in 5 of 18 studies and mobility in 4 studies, but effects were inconsistent.

Key findings

01Interventions with five or more key components showed a positive effect on at least one outcome: mobility, physical activity, or functional status.

02In 5 of 18 studies, the intervention group had a statistically significant improvement in functional status compared with the control group.

03Mobility improved significantly in intervention groups in four studies evaluating restorative care, ADL training, an ADL goal-setting tool, and function-focused care.

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 studies with varied designs and methodological quality scores from 40% to 86%, and only one study reported adjusting for cluster effects, so some null results may reflect insufficient sample size. The interventions were multicomponent, so the review cannot determine the contribution of any single component. Many significant differences were small or short-lived; for example, a Barthel Index difference of 0.9 points on a 0 to 100 scale was reported, and some effects did not last to 6 months. Adherence varied: four studies reported variability in how staff delivered the intervention, so it is unclear whether nursing staff consistently used the interventions. The review may have missed relevant studies because title screening was done by one person, and it excluded studies with low quality scores. Significant effects were found in long-term or home care, not acute hospital settings, so generalizability to hospital patients is limited.

Declared interests

The supplied publication types list research support from a non-U.S. government source; no author conflict-of-interest declaration is included in the supplied text.

The easy way to misread this

Do not conclude that daily nursing care interventions reliably improve function. Only 5 of 18 studies showed a significant improvement in functional status, and 12 studies showed no positive effect. The included studies had quality scores from 40% to 86%, and one significant Barthel Index difference was 0.9 points on a 0 to 100 scale. The interventions were multicomponent, so the review cannot show that any single component caused the changes.

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