Ethical challenges faced by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: a scoping review protocol

The aim of this scoping review is to describe the literature reporting on ethical challenges faced by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the contextual characteristics of ethical challenges, and the strategies to address these challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic presented many ethical challenges to nurses, ranging from allocating scarce resources, to balancing a duty of care with self-preservation, and implementing visitation restrictions. Internationally, there has been a range of reported issues, but few studies have described strategies to overcome these challenges.

Studies that report on ethical challenges faced by nurses while caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic will be included. Studies that report on strategies to address these challenges will also be considered for inclusion.

This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the methods outlined by JBI and reported using PRISMA-ScR guidance. The following databases will be searched for eligible studies from November 2019 to present day: PubMed, CINAHL, Ovid, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Library, and Scopus. No language restrictions will be applied. Studies will be reviewed for inclusion by 2 independent reviewers and a data extraction form developed specifically for this review will be used to extract data relevant to the review questions. Results will be analyzed and presented according to the concepts of interest, using tables, figures, images, and supporting narrative synthesis.