title: Nurse staffing factors contributing to medication safety incidents in acute care hospitals—A scoping review protocol
Creators: name: Marie, Rafferty Anne
name: Jukarainen Laura
name: Tiina, Syyrilä
name: Saija, Koskiniemi
name: Jylhä Virpi
name: Marja, Härkänen
Publisher: name: OSF Registries
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Medicine and Health Sciences
subject: Health and Medical Administration
subject: Other Nursing
subject: Nursing
subject: FOS: Health sciences
subject: acute hospitals
subject: health care
subject: healthcare
subject: home page
subject: hospital
subject: hospitals
subject: medication
subject: medication safety
subject: nurse staffing
subject: nursing
subject: organization
subject: patient safety
subject: review
subject: safety
subject: scoping review
subject: specialized healthcare
subject: staffing
subject: tertiary healthcare
subject: web page
subject: web site

description: This scoping review will be conducted during 2024-2025

Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to identify, map, and understand the extent and types of evidence, concepts, and definitions related to nurse staffing factors that contribute to medication incidents in acute care hospitals.

Review questions:
1. What concepts and definitions of nurse staffing factors that contribute to medication incidents are available in acute care hospital contexts? 

2. What types of staffing factors contribute to medication safety incidents in acute care hospital contexts? 

Introduction: 
Staffing factors have been recognized being a common contributor for medication incidents. The concepts and definitions of nurse staffing needs to be clarified for further research purposes to improve medication safety.

Inclusion criteria: Scientific papers, gray literature and major patient safety related organizational web sites will be considered for the study if discussing nurse staffing factors that contributes to medication incidents in acute care hospitals. The search is limited to literature published in English or Finnish from 2013 to 2024.
 
Participants -
The study will consider studies involving nurses of any educational level who are involved in the medication use process and work in acute care hospitals. 

Concept -
This review will consider studies, literature, and web pages that explore and discuss the concept of nurse staffing factors contributing to medication incidents. 

Studies concerning medication safety incidents regarding medication use will be included. Studies focusing on staffing factors contributing to incidents other than medication incidents will be excluded. Studies investigating factors contributing to medication incidents other than staffing factors will also be excluded. 

Context - 
Literature and web pages regarding acute care hospitals internationally, including low-, middle-, and high-income countries will be included. 

Methods: This scoping review will follow the JBI standard methodology for scoping review. CINAHL (EBSCOhost), PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus (ELSEVIER), PsycINFO (EBSCO), and Medic databases will be searched using systematic search phrases. Two or more researchers will conduct the data screening, selection and extraction. The study selection process is reported using PRISMA flowchart and PRISMA-ScR checklist will be used for reporting.
Results will be presented in charts, graphs and narrative form.

Keywords: staffing; nurse staffing; medication safety; patient safety; hospitals
License: CC-By Attribution 4.0 International