Quality of outpatient nursing care: a scoping review.
Bruna Noschang de Brum, Carlise Rigon Dalla Nora, Adriana Roese Ramos and 2 others
PMID 40172446WHAT IT FOUND
Outpatient nursing care quality has been measured through 17 indicators, mostly process measures such as communication, care coordination, health education, documentation, and patient satisfaction.
The review maps what was measured, not that any indicator improves care.
Key findings
01The review identified 17 indicators of outpatient nursing care quality, grouped into structure, process, and outcome dimensions.
02The largest share of the 17 indicators was in the process dimension (43.2%), followed by outcomes (30.3%) and structure (26.5%).
03The most frequently cited indicators were continuing health education, service organization, communication, care coordination, and the nursing process.
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 45 original articles, and many were not focused on specialized outpatient nursing, so it may not capture routine outpatient care. The search used English descriptors only, and some database thesauri were not used, so studies in other languages or with different terms may have been missed. Included studies varied by design, country, care area, and sample, and the review did not test whether any indicator improves patient outcomes. Most included studies were published after 2000 and came from a few countries, especially the United States, Brazil, and Germany, limiting generalisability to other settings. The review excluded reviews, theoretical studies, case studies, editorials, experience reports, dissertations, and theses, so some relevant outpatient nursing work may not be represented.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 17 mapped indicators as evidence that measuring them improves outpatient nursing care. The review only mapped what previous studies reported; it did not test interventions or outcomes.