The impact of missed nursing care or care not done on adults in health care: A rapid review for the Consensus Development Project

Aim: To identify outcomes of missed nursing care for adult patients. Design: A five-stage rapid review process was conducted as follows: refining the question, retrieving relevant studies, determining the studies to be included, organizing the data and synthesizing the results. Methods: Papers published between 2010-2020 that focused on the UK, Europe, the USA and Oceania were searched for keywords in the title and abstract in major databases. The articles that identified the impact of missed nursing care on adults in health care were selected. Results: Seventeen articles met the criteria. Major impacts of missed care in adult settings were increases in mortality, adverse events and failure to maintain. These same studies also identified a range of causative factors linked to ward environment, inadequate staffing levels and skills mix although are inconclusive. Solutions include continuing education, ward and work re-design, and appropriate skill level.

Automated summary

The aim of this study was to identify outcomes of missed nursing care for adult patients. The results showed that missed care in adult settings can lead to increased mortality, adverse events, and failure to maintain. Causative factors include ward environment, inadequate staffing levels, and skills mix. Solutions recommended include continuing education, ward and work re-design, and appropriate skill level.