Nurse-led physical health interventions for people with mental illness : An integrative review of international literature

Background
People experiencing mental illness receive physical healthcare from nurses in a variety of settings including acute inpatient, secure extended care, forensic, and community services. While nurse-led clinical practice addressing sub-optimal consumer physical health is salient, a detailed understanding and description of the contribution by nurses to physical health interventions in people experiencing mental illness is not clearly articulated in the literature.

Aims
The aim of this integrative review is to describe the state of knowledge on nurse-led physical health intervention for consumers, focusing on nursing roles, nursing assessment, and intervention settings.

Methods
A systematic search of six databases using Medical Subject Headings from 2001 and 2022 inclusive was conducted. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was utilised for quality appraisal.

Results
Seventy-four studies were identified as “nurse-led”. Interventions were most common among community settings (n = 34, 46%). Nurses performed varied roles, often concurrently, including the collection of 341 physical health outcomes, and multiple roles with 225 distinct nursing actions identified across the included studies. A nurse as lead author was common among the included studies (n = 46, 62%). However, nurses were not always recognised for their efforts or contributions in authorship.

Conclusions
There is potential gap in role recognition that should be considered when designing and reporting nurse-led physical health interventions.

© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

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