TOPIC

Medical-surgical research

Everything we have read on medical-surgical. Each paper is summarised from the full article rather than its abstract, so the limitations are in there too, and the funding wherever the paper declares it.

342 PAPERS · PAGE 5 OF 7 · NEWEST FIRST

• RNCohort2026Predictors for Home Discharge and Need for Medical Care at Home in Paediatric ICU Patients: A Single-Centre Retrospective Study.Nursing in critical carePostoperative admission and lower admission heart rate were linked to a higher chance of direct home discharge in 118 paediatric ICU patients; arrest before ICU and early ventilation were linked to a lower chance. Longer ICU stay was linked to needing medical care at home.
• RNOther2026Quantifying and Visualizing the Pressure Distribution of In-Bed Positions to Reduce Pressure Injury Risk.Advances in skin & wound careRaising the head of bed increased sacral pressure, while raising the feet in a semi-Fowler position lowered peak pressure by about 20% on a pressure-redistributing mattress. Nurses can use pressure maps to show that bed angle changes sacral pressure.
• RNCohort2026Disparities in the Setting of Initial Dementia Diagnosis: Influence of Race, Ethnicity, and Primary Care Use.Journal of the American Medical Directors AssociationIn newly diagnosed dementia, Black Medicare beneficiaries were more likely than White beneficiaries to first receive diagnosis in hospital or nursing home. Recent primary care visits were associated with more community diagnoses and a smaller Black and White gap.
• RNCohort2026Trajectories of Nursing Care During the Critical and Intensive Phases After Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery: A Retrospective Observational Study.Journal of advanced nursingAfter CABG surgery, nursing documentation peaked early for lung, drain and skin care, then rose for wound, infection and pain management by day 5. It shows what nurses recorded, not patient outcomes.
• RNQualitative2026Qualitative study on experiences reported by people with complex wounds In Primary Health Care.Revista brasileira de enfermagemPeople with long-standing lower-limb wounds described distress beyond pain: lost social life, communication gaps, and faith that could sustain hope or fuel fear of punishment. Ask patients about these meanings.
• RNMeta-Analysis2026Machine Learning in Assessing Intraoperative Blood Loss: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International nursing reviewAcross 12 studies, machine-learning tools estimated surgical blood loss closely against reference methods. Accuracy varied widely, was weakest in cesarean sections, and did not prove better patient outcomes.
• RNCohort2026App Versus Logbook for Weight Monitoring and Help-Seeking Behavior in Heart Failure: A Single-Group Quasi-Experimental Study: A Single-Group Quasi-Experimental Study.The Journal of cardiovascular nursingHeart failure patients using a weight app recorded weight for a median of 346.5 days versus 315 days with a logbook, and sought help sooner after weight gain. App use fell to 30.1% late, and length of stay did not change.
• RNSystematic Review2026Pain management in complex wounds: a scoping review and analysis using comfort theory.Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S PPain management evidence for complex wounds mapped into physical and psycho-spiritual comfort interventions, including scales, dressings, virtual reality, analgesics, and relaxation techniques across 27 studies.
• RNSystematic Review2026Characteristics of nursing care expanded by anthroposophy: a scoping review.Revista latino-americana de enfermagemAnthroposophic nursing care was mapped from 12 publications as hands-on therapies such as herbal compresses, wraps, baths, foot baths, and rhythmical massage, often followed by rest. This describes practice, not proof that it works.
• RNOther2026Evaluation of Information Generated by ChatGPT on Preventing Peripheral Venous Catheter-Related Infections.Nursing openNo ChatGPT version clearly beat the others on peripheral venous catheter infection questions. GPT-3.5 and GPT-4o scored 5 of 10; GPT-4 scored 3. All missed hand hygiene and aseptic technique.
• RNCohort2026Care Needs for Patients Screened Positive for Cognitive Impairment and Delirium: A Cross-Sectional Observational Study.Journal of advanced nursingOn one audit day, 42.1% of hospitalised adults had possible cognitive impairment or delirium. Those with higher 4AT scores had more documented need for help with washing, dressing, toileting, eating and moving, and more incontinence, falls, pressure injury and nutrition risks.
• RNQualitative2026Integrating Advanced Practice Nurses in Anesthesia to Tackle Gaps in Current Health Care: A Qualitative Study.Nursing & health sciencesPatients, nurses and doctors in Switzerland all said the same thing about pain. Hospital care was good, but patients went home without instructions on how to manage it. Nurses said their non-technical work is invisible and they are excluded from writing perioperative guidelines.
• OTRNSurvey2026Dignity Among Older Persons in Long-Term Care Institutions in Taiwan and Related Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study.The journal of nursing research : JNR48.9% of 188 older residents in southern Taiwan long-term care institutions reported low dignity. Fewer or no children, lower daily living independence, inability to walk, higher education, and depression were associated with low dignity.
• RNRCT2026The Effect of Preoperative Stoma Education Including a Wearable Dummy Stoma on Postoperative Stoma-Related Anxiety, Adjustment and Self-Efficacy: a Randomised Controlled Trial.International journal of nursing practicePreoperative stoma education using a wearable dummy stoma lowered anxiety at first stoma care and improved self-care confidence and adjustment for 6 weeks compared with routine brochure, verbal, and visual teaching.
• RNCohort2026Sleep Quality and Delirium Occurrence in Intensive Care Unit Patients: A Prospective Observational Study.Nursing in critical careICU patients who slept less and woke more often on their first night were more likely to develop delirium the next day. By day three, illness severity and prior delirium outweighed sleep quality. Early sleep protection may matter most in the first 24 hours.
• RNOther2026Day zero of autologous cryopreserved hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: microcosting of care provided by senior nurses.Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S PDay-zero nursing care for autologous cryopreserved stem cell transplant averaged US$739.81. The stem cell bag infusion cost US$631.62, and nurse time dominated cost in most procedures.
• PTOTRNCohort2026Identifying Risk Factors for Fall-Related Injuries Among Inpatients at a Tertiary Hospital in China: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Nursing openAmong 145 inpatient falls, improper footwear had higher injury rates (68.10% vs 51.00%), and toileting caused 35.43% of falls. Patients with full mobility had the highest injury rate (66.10%).
• RNSurvey2026Health literacy of patients hospitalized for digestive surgeries.Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S PHospitalized digestive surgery patients reported more difficulty getting information for self-care and finding good health information than feeling supported or engaging with providers. Low education was linked to worse scores, suggesting nurses may need to check understanding.
• RNSystematic Review2026The Risk Assessment Tools for Intraoperative Hypothermia in Adults: A Scope Review.Nursing openAdult intraoperative hypothermia risk tools mostly assess age, BMI, baseline temperature, fluids, surgery/anaesthesia time and operating room temperature. Across 20 studies, most were single-centre and their usefulness for patient care is unclear.
• RNSurvey2026Factors Associated With Transition of Care in Patients With Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases: Cross-Sectional Study.Nursing openSurgical patients, white patients, women, and those discharged with medical devices reported better care transitions. Patients with no income also scored higher, though the authors suspect gratitude bias. Mid-income patients reported the worst continuity of care.
• RNCohort2026Effects of risk management plus predictive nursing on adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury behavior.Revista da Escola de Enfermagem da U S PIn hospitalized adolescents with non-suicidal self-injury, adding risk management and predictive nursing to routine ward care was associated with fewer self-injury incidents and better mood, quality of life, and social function over 12 months.
• RNSurvey2026The Role of Family Care on the Quality of Life of Patients With Permanent Enterostomies: A Chain-Mediated Effect of Inner Strength and Patient Activation.Scandinavian journal of caring sciencesAmong 304 patients with permanent stomas, family care was linked to better quality of life through patients' inner strength and confidence in self-management. The survey cannot show family care caused improvement.
• RNOther2026A Point Prevalence Study of the Provision of Palliative Care for Adult Inpatients With Mental Health Issues.Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses AssociationMost adult mental health inpatients identified as potentially benefiting from palliative care had no evidence of referral or care provision. Older adult wards contained most of the patients with potential palliative care needs.
• RNOther2026Management of Gastrointestinal Function in Patients After Laparoscopic Surgery for Benign Gynaecological Diseases: A Best Practice Implementation Project.Nursing openShorter first flatus and defecation times and less abdominal distension were reported with a ward-based perioperative bundle after laparoscopic gynaecological surgery, but many measures were delivered together, so no single component can be credited.
• RNOther2026Reliability and Validity of the Swedish Version of the Parents' Postoperative Pain Measure (PPPM-S): A Cross-Sectional Psychometric Study.Scandinavian journal of caring sciencesA 15-item parent checklist of children's behaviour after day surgery gave scores related to a child pain scale and was found feasible for home use. A score of 5 or more may flag pain that may need medicine.
• RNOther2026Clinical and epidemiological profile of pediatric patients undergoing extracorporeal membrane oxygenation: experience at a referral center.Revista latino-americana de enfermagemPediatric patients on ECMO who developed mechanical complications had nearly three times the odds of death. The cohort was severely ill, with most receiving vasoactive drugs or antibiotics before support began.
• RNSurvey2026Difficulties Experienced by Nurses in Psychiatric Hospitals During the Transfer of Psychiatric Inpatients With Physical Complications to General Hospitals: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study.Nursing openMost psychiatric nurses reported difficulty transferring patients to general hospitals, citing stigma and unclear roles. Regular information sharing about specific patients reduced these difficulties, but routine cooperation meetings between hospitals did not.
• RNSystematic Review2026Guidelines for Verification of Gastric Tube Location in Adult Hospitalised Patients: A Systematic Review.Nursing in critical careAdult hospital tube guidelines disagree on verification. They discourage auscultation, support aspirate pH and marking, and advise x-ray if doubt remains, but only one guideline was high quality.
• RNSystematic Review2026Wearable Electronic Monitoring of Vital Signs in Hospitalised Adults: A Nursing Focused Scoping Review of Clinical, Economic and Implementation Outcomes.Journal of advanced nursingIn hospital wards, wearable monitoring was reported to detect deterioration earlier, but benefits depended on alert governance, training and response capacity. Nurses also described added device work, alarm fatigue and unclear savings.
• RNCohort2026Accidents from falls among hospitalized patients in Emergency Units: a multicenter study.Revista brasileira de enfermagemMost emergency-unit falls happened from stretchers (68.2%), and admission fall-risk assessment was documented in only 42.7% of records. Among documented harm categories, 50.0% had no harm, but 5.6% died. Nurses should treat older, confused, agitated patients on stretchers as high risk.
• RNOther2026Infusion Pump Interoperability and Resulting Alert Reduction: Multisystem Findings.Journal of nursing care qualityAfter interoperability, drug library alignment, functional testing, and quarterly data analytics service, 22 infusion pump sites had fewer programming alerts, edits, overrides, and potential averted overdose events. Alerts fell from 73.4 to 48.6 per 1000 events, but patient outcomes and workload were not measured.
• RNSurvey2026Factors determining patient satisfaction during healthcare delivery in Limpopo, South Africa.CurationisPatients reported dissatisfaction with long outpatient waits, dirty linen and environmental hygiene. Inpatients also reported less agreement that nurses sat and talked with them or explained their condition.
• RNOther2026Applying the quality improvement cycle to prevent cardiac surgical site infections.Revista brasileira de enfermagemA quality improvement cycle with protocol, bundle, education, adherence strategies, discharge booklet and audits coincided with surgical site infection falling from 13.59% to 6.91% and mediastinitis from 5.34% to 1.38%. No control group, so components cannot be separated.
• OTRNOther2026Healing Steps on Country-Exploring Care Pathways for Aboriginal People in the Kimberley With Diabetes-Related Foot Disease.The Australian journal of rural healthRemote Aboriginal patients with diabetes foot disease had many acute foot-care visits and hospital admissions, but little preventive care. They valued local Aboriginal health services, support people, and self-care, while hospital discharge left some under-informed and under-equipped.
• RNCohort2026Triggers, Responses, and Outcomes for Patient Related Violence and/or Aggression Events During Acute Hospitalisation: A Documentary Analysis.Journal of clinical nursingAcute ward Code Grey calls for patient aggression were often triggered by agitation, wanting to leave, wandering and confusion. Physical and chemical restraint were common responses, while reported injuries were few.
• RNOther2026Application of the best evidence for preventing central venous catheter-related thrombosis in patients undergoing continuous renal replacement therapy.International journal of nursing sciencesIn ICU patients on continuous renal replacement therapy, an evidence-based catheter-maintenance program was followed by catheter-related thrombosis falling from 28.46% to 15.33%. The study was a before-after, non-synchronous control study, so the drop may reflect several concurrent changes.
• RNCase-Control2026Predicting Falls With the Morse Fall Scale: A Retrospective Assessment at the Veterans Health Administration.Clinical nursing researchThe Morse Fall Scale poorly identified Veterans who would fall in hospital. Adding comorbidity and mortality scores improved prediction only slightly and still did not separate fallers well.
• RNRCT2026Effects of Early Mobilization Training on Mobility, Pain, Comfort, and Sleep Quality in Laparoscopic Abdominal Surgery Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Clinical nursing researchPreoperative early mobilization training increased mobilization time, improved mobility, reduced pain, and enhanced comfort and sleep quality in laparoscopic abdominal surgery patients compared to routine care.
• RNSurvey2026Correlates of Patient and Nurse Missed Care: A Multi-Hospital Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical nursingSurgical inpatients reported missed oral care, body care and mobilization. Nurses reported missed vital sign checks, emotional support and repositioning. Patients with vascular access events reported higher missed care.
• RNSurvey2026Discharge Learning Needs and Associated Factors Among Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgery: A Cross-Sectional Study.Journal of clinical nursingCardiac surgery patients rated treatment complications, daily activities, quality of life and medications as the highest discharge learning needs. Women, less-educated and non-working patients reported more needs; men and uninsured patients reported lower needs.
• RNCohort2026Patterns of Daily Administration of Psychoactive Drug Classes for Distress Behavior in Dementia.Journal of the American Medical Directors AssociationIn nursing home residents with dementia, antipsychotic and benzodiazepine administration rose sharply around documented distress behavior incidents and persisted 30 days; antidepressant and anti-epileptic classes did not show the same pattern.
• OTRNCohort2026Stage of Disease Among Hospitalized Persons Living With Dementia: A Multisite Study.Journal of the American Medical Directors AssociationMost hospitalized dementia patients had moderate dementia, not severe. They were more likely to be older, Black, admitted to general medicine, and diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Severe dementia was rare and may be missed because palliative or hospice patients were excluded.
• RNOther2026Consensus-Based Safety Recommendations for Informal Home Care: A Mixed Methods Study.Research in nursing & healthExperts generated 288 safety recommendations for informal home care, covering tasks like medication storage and fall prevention. These are consensus-based suggestions for future testing, not proven interventions, and have not yet been evaluated for real-world effectiveness or caregiver usability.
• RNCohort2026The Effect of Family Voice Interventions on Delirium Incidence and Duration in Adult ICU Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nursing in critical careFamily voice messages were associated with fewer delirium cases and shorter delirium by 0.90 days. Nurses can consider involving trusted family voices, but dose is unclear and some voices may distress.
• RNQualitative2026Perceived cardiovascular disease risk among multi-ethnic postmenopausal women residing in Korea: a Q-methodological study.Women's health nursing (Seoul, Korea)Postmenopausal women in Korea fell into four risk-perception groups, from aware but inconsistent to passive, lifestyle-focused, or information-seeking. All groups disagreed that menopause affects cardiovascular risk. Education should be tailored rather than uniform.
• RNOther2026Determination of the Minimum Discard Volume in the Extraction of Blood Samples Through Arterial Catheters in Critical Patients.Nursing in critical careFor ICU nurses drawing blood from radial arterial lines, 2 mL discard was judged sufficient for blood gas and electrolyte results; 3 mL matched the control, and 1 mL did not. Findings apply only to one catheter type.
• RNSystematic Review2026Interventions for the Management of Bladder Spasms in Adults with Indwelling Urinary Catheters: A Nursing Practice-Oriented Systematic Review.Investigacion y educacion en enfermeriaIn adults with indwelling catheters, nursing-led measures such as reducing balloon volume, fixation, electrical stimulation, and structured protocols were reported to reduce pain and spasms in small studies. Consider these before drugs, especially in older adults.
• RNOther2026Validation of the Spanish Short Version of the Perception of Humanized Care Behaviors Scale in Hospitalized Adults in Chile.Investigacion y educacion en enfermeriaA new 15-item questionnaire for hospitalized patients in Chile was validated to measure how humanized they feel nursing care is. It works during hospitalization, not just at discharge, and can be read aloud to patients who cannot read or write. It does not measure clinical outcomes.
• RNRCT2026Effects of Patient-Preferred Music on Anxiety, Pain, and Quality of Recovery After Knee Arthroplasty Under Spinal Anesthesia: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Clinical nursing researchPatients who listened to their own music through headphones during knee replacement under spinal anesthesia reported less anxiety after surgery and better recovery. Pain was mostly similar, but music patients reported less pain at one later postoperative check.
• RNSurvey2026Exploring the Perception of Urinary Catheter Use in Older Surgical Patients: ADLs Matter.Nursing openAmong older surgical patients with a urinary catheter, greater daily living independence and better catheter knowledge were linked to more positive views of catheter use. This does not show education changes preference.