Interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and engineering in health care: A scoping review

Due to the rapid advancements in precision medicine and artificial intelligence, interdisciplinary collaborations between nursing and engineering have emerged. Although engineering is vital in solving complex nursing problems and advancing healthcare, the collaboration between the two fields has not been fully elucidated.

To identify the study areas of interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and engineering in health care, particularly focusing on the role of nurses in the collaboration.

In this study, a scoping review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews was performed. A comprehensive search for published literature was conducted using the PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Digital Library, and Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library from inception to November 22, 2020. Data screening and extraction were performed independently by two reviewers. Any discrepancies in results were resolved through discussions or in consultation with a third reviewer. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results were visualized in an interdisciplinary collaboration model.

We identified 6,752 studies through the literature search, and 60 studies met the inclusion criteria. The study areas of interdisciplinary collaboration concentrated on patient safety (n = 18), symptom monitoring and health management (n = 18), information system and nursing human resource management (n = 16), health education (n = 5), and nurse-patient communication (n = 3). The roles of nurses in the interdisciplinary collaboration were divided into four themes: requirement analyst (n = 21), designer (n = 22), tester(n = 37) and evaluator (n = 49). Based on these results, an interdisciplinary collaboration model was constructed.

Interdisciplinary collaborations between nursing and engineering promote nursing innovation and practice. However, these collaborations are still emerging and in the early stages. In the future, nurses should be more involved in the early stages of solving healthcare problems, particularly in the requirement analysis and designing phases. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to develop interprofessional education, strengthen nursing connections with the healthcare engineering industry, and provide more platforms and resources to bring nursing and engineering disciplines together.