The Development of a Deprescribing Competency Framework in Geriatric Nursing Education

The purpose of this article is to report the literature review findings of our larger deprescribing initiative, with the goal of developing a competency framework about deprescribing to be incorporated into the future geriatric nursing education curriculum. A literature review was conducted to examine the facilitators and barriers faced by nurses with regard to the process of deprescribing for older adults, and the development of deprescribing competency in nursing education. We adopted the seven steps of the Comprehensive Literature Review Process Model, which is sub-divided into the following three phases (a) Exploration; (b) Interpretation; and (c) Communication. A total of 24 peer-reviewed documents revealed three major facilitating factors: (a) Effective education and training in deprescribing; (b) Need for continuing education and professional development in medication optimization; and (c) Benefits of multi-disciplinary involvement in medication management.