Utilisation of point-of-care ultrasound by critical care nurses: a scoping review protocol

Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) is considered an essential component of intensive care practice, enabling rapid assessment and diagnosis of various medical conditions. Critical care nurses (CCNs) have increasingly adopted this bedside technology, which has demonstrated to improve patient care and streamline workflows. This scoping review aims to map and present the contexts in which CCNs use POCUS, the content and structure of the training programmes undertaken and any reported impacts on patient outcomes.

This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines and reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews checklists. We will search Medline, EBSCOhost CINAHL and Google Scholar for relevant studies published from 2015 to the present. Additionally, the reference lists of included studies will be manually checked for further relevant articles. All review steps will be carried out by at least two reviewers to ensure accuracy and reliability. Data charting will be performed narratively, detailing the study characteristics and findings pertinent to the review questions.

There is no ethics disclosure required for this review protocol, as the data will be sourced from previously published primary studies. The findings of this review will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and disseminated through presentations at both national and international conferences.