Mapping and Characterizing Instruments for Assessing Family Nurses' Workload: Scoping Review

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Understanding family nurse workload is vital for enhancing health outcomes and care processes.
• Current research lacks comprehensive descriptions of nursing workload in primary care, specifically family health nursing.
• There is a need to identify ideal metrics for characterizing the global workload of family nurses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a scoping review mapping existing evidence on family nurse workload assessment.
• To characterize the instruments currently used to evaluate the workload of family nurses.

Main Methods:

• A scoping review methodology was employed, following the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines.
• Research involved three stages: initial database searches (Medline, CINHAL), extended searches (JBI, CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, Cochrane, Scopus), and reference list reviews.
• No defined time limit was set for the literature search.

Main Results:

• Fourteen studies were included in the review, referencing ten distinct assessment instruments.
• Nine instruments assessed workload as a component of a broader evaluation tool.
• Two instruments were specifically designed to measure workload exclusively.

Conclusions:

• The diversity in professional roles, complex nature of workload, and absence of a unified theoretical framework impede the development of consensus instruments for family nurse workload assessment.
• Further research is needed to establish standardized and validated tools for measuring family nurse workload.
• This study was prospectively registered with the Open Science Framework (registration number: 3k6vr).