Gender-Sensitive Nursing: An Operationalizing Concept Analysis

Gender biases in healthcare approaches lead to inequities in patient health outcomes, historically affecting women and gender minorities the most. In medicine, the concept of gender medicine explicitly addresses these disparities. Although Miers introduced the term gender-sensitive care in nursing two decades ago, there is still no consensus on how to define this phenomenon within the nursing discipline.

To conduct an operational concept analysis of gender-sensitive nursing.

A systematic literature review was performed using Walker and Avant's concept analysis method. This approach allowed for the identification of antecedents, defining attributes, empirical referents and consequences, as well as the proposal of model cases to illustrate the findings.

A total of 34 articles were analysed. Three antecedents were identified: healthcare system accessibility, organizational commitment to equity and education from a gender perspective. Four defining attributes emerged: gender-aware nurses, legitimization of care, implementation of a gender-sensitive approach in nursing management and leadership, and the integration of gender assessment in the nursing process. Three key consequences were also identified: patient empowerment, harm prevention and minimization, and improvement in the quality and effectiveness of nursing care. Additionally, various instruments and strategies were found to operationalize the empirical referents of the concept. Model cases were proposed to exemplify the synthesized evidence.

Far from being an abstract concept, gender-sensitive nursing is a measurable and actionable phenomenon that can be promoted in clinical practice through various empirical indicators.

Gender-sensitive nursing legitimizes individual experiences shaped by gender identity and fosters structural improvements that empower patients. Gender-sensitive nursing is a measurable and actionable phenomenon that can be promoted in clinical practice through various empirical indicators.