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Global organizations have pronounced about the importance of involving people in health care, however, this process is challenging. Given the availability of evidence that addresses people's experiences of involvement in nursing care, it is important to produce recommendations at this point by synthesizing the evidence. So, this review aims to synthesize the available qualitative evidence about people's experiences of their involvement in nursing care in a hospital setting.
Systematic review of qualitative evidence.
This systematic review was conducted according to the JBI methodology for systematic reviews of qualitative evidence. A comprehensive search strategy was conducted in nine databases/resources. The selection process, methodological quality assessment, and data extraction were conducted independently by two reviewers. The data were synthesized using the meta-aggregation approach, and the results were graded according to ConQual.
A total of 75 findings and 141 illustrations were extracted from the 15 included studies. These findings were aggregated into 12 categories and generated into three synthesized findings: (1) People who are hospitalized conceptualize and attribute importance to involvement in nursing care as an active process of participation and monitoring of care, decision-making, opinion, and partnership; (2) The establishment of a relationship between hospitalized people and nurses, trust, communication, and information are essential for participation in care; (3) People's participation in care is affected by the person's own constraints and preference for assuming a passive role, by barriers associated with a lack of information, the organization of care, the relationship established between nurses, and paternalistic attitudes.
People who were admitted to hospital conceptualized and attached importance to this phenomenon, perceived the conditions necessary to promote it, and the barriers they experienced.
This systematic review provides recommendations for nurses' clinical practice (with grade B). It recommends that nurses should establish a partnership relationship with hospitalized people, through trust, communication and information; give people the opportunity to monitor care, participate in decision-making and give their opinion; assess the person's preferences for involvement and other factors; and that the barriers to this process identified here should be assessed and addressed in each context. As such, this review provides very valuable information for nurses' clinical practice and should also be incorporated into health policy.
Protocol Registration: PROSPERO CRD42024506501.
Approximately 25% of the Brazilian population suffers from mental disorders, a prevalence exacerbated by systemic and cultural factors such as socioeconomic inequalities, underfunded mental health services, regional disparities, and persistent stigma. These conditions significantly impact hospital care. Nurses, due to their direct contact with these patients, face challenges ranging from managing physical conditions to handling verbal aggression and psychiatric crises. This study aimed to assess the scientific evidence regarding nursing care for hospitalized patients with psychiatric disorders.
A systematic review with a mixed-methods approach was conducted, registered in PROSPERO (#CRD42022359288) and guided by PRISMA standards. Databases, such as MEDLINE, LILACS, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and BDEnf, were searched using keywords like “Mental disorder,” “Psychiatric health,” “Nursing care,” and “Hospital.” Methodological quality was assessed using JBI and SQUIRE tools. The integration of quantitative and qualitative components occurred through meta-aggregation of qualitative data and frequency-based coding of quantitative themes, allowing thematic convergence across study designs.
Six studies were included. Meta-aggregation revealed frequent terms, such as “Nurse,” “Emergency,” “Screening,” “Patient,” and “Care.” Similarity analysis linked “Nurse” with “perception” and “experience” and “Emergency” with “Screening” and “Mental health,” highlighting the importance of experience and training. Five categories emerged: (1) professional experience (19.05%, showing skill gaps despite experience); (2) caring process (19.05%, stressing efficient screening); (3) barriers and challenges (19.05%, revealing difficulty with comorbidities); (4) training process (19.05%, identifying training deficiencies); and (5) therapeutic interventions (23.81%, discussing restraint use). These percentages refer to the proportional frequency of themes identified across the total number of studies analyzed. For thematic classification, only statistically significant chi-square values (p < 0.05) were considered in the grouping of content.
Nursing care for psychiatric patients in hospitals faces challenges like insufficient training and difficulty managing psychiatric comorbidities. Recommendations include incorporating structured mental health content into nursing curricula and hospital-based continuing education programs. These strategies may guide future healthcare policies in Brazil by improving patient safety, reducing hospital readmissions, and promoting more humane, evidence-based therapeutic interventions.
The findings emphasize the urgent need for targeted education and training to improve nursing care for psychiatric patients in hospital settings.
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