Peer clinical supervision in nursing practice: a scoping review protocol

This scoping review will map and summarize the available evidence on peer clinical supervision among nurses in clinical practice settings, identifying its purposes, models, outcomes, and implementation contexts.

Peer clinical supervision is increasingly recognized as a valuable approach to promote reflective practice, professional development, and emotional support among nurses. Although interest in this form of supervision is growing, the available evidence is fragmented, with variations in its definitions, structures, and reported outcomes across clinical settings. To date, no comprehensive review has systematically examined how peer clinical supervision is conceptualized, implemented, and evaluated in nursing practice.

This review will include studies on peer clinical supervision involving nurses in clinical practice across all study designs and evidence sources. Studies limited to nursing students, educational settings, or hierarchical models of supervision will be excluded.

A comprehensive search will be conducted in major international databases, including PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, MedicLatina, ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Source, and the Cochrane Library, as well as selected sources of gray literature. The search will include all available studies, with no restrictions on date or language. Two reviewers will independently screen and select studies according to the eligibility criteria, and relevant data will be extracted and charted. The evidence will be analyzed and presented using descriptive synthesis, supported by tabular and narrative summaries to map key concepts, contexts, outcomes, and gaps in the literature.

OSF https://osf.io/jzupy.