Registered Nurse-Led Assessments in Australian Residential Aged Care Homes: A Scoping Review.
Laura Bocks, Catherine Viengkham, Merrick Powell and 11 others
PMID 40135927WHAT IT FOUND
Australian aged care nurses use many different assessment approaches, but evidence that they reduce residents' emergency transfers or hospital admissions is mixed.
Programmes often combine education, decision support and equipment, so one component cannot be credited.
Key findings
01The review identified 28 eligible studies describing 19 unique holistic RN-led assessment interventions for Australian residential aged care homes.
02Evidence for residents was mixed: some studies reported reduced ED transfers, hospital admissions or length of stay, while others reported no change or non-significant reductions.
03Most studies that examined staff outcomes reported increased confidence or satisfaction, but these effects did not extend to relatives' satisfaction with 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 did not check the quality or bias risk of the included studies, so it cannot say how reliable each finding is. Most included studies were mixed methods or qualitative, so they describe experiences and barriers rather than prove that an assessment tool works. The interventions varied widely in components, settings and outcomes, and many were not described in enough detail to compare fairly. The search was limited to English studies published after 2000 in Australian residential aged care homes, and grey literature was not thoroughly searched, so relevant tools may have been missed. Resident outcomes were mixed across studies, including within studies of the same programme, so a single tool cannot be recommended as proven.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The review was funded by the Medical Research Future Fund Clinician Researchers - Nurse, Midwives and Allied Health Research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that a structured RN-led assessment framework reduces residents' ED transfers or hospital admissions. Resident outcomes were mixed across studies, and many programmes combined education, decision support, equipment and specialist support, so the effect of any single component cannot be separated.