Mapping the Global Landscape of Advanced Practice Nursing in Anesthesia: A Scoping Review of Scope of Practice, Autonomy and Structural Determinants

This scoping review aims to achieve two primary objectives: • To map and compare the reported Scope of Practice (SoP) and degrees of clinical autonomy for APNAs across differing national jurisdictions. • To identify and analyze the structural determinants—from legal rules to cultural beliefs—that shape this role’s scope of practice and autonomy. The review is anchored by the following research questions: 1. How does the Scope of Practice and clinical autonomy of APNAs vary globally? 2. Which structural determinants drive the heterogeneity of these professional roles? 3. How do these determinants, as reported in the literature, facilitate or impede the global standardization of the APN anesthesia model?