Point-of-Care Ultrasound for Bladder Assessment in the Nursing Process: A Scoping Review

Objective: This scoping review aims to map the available evidence on the use of point-of-care ultrasound for bladder assessment in nursing practice, supporting the development of nursing diagnoses. Introduction: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) enables bedside ultrasonography by nurses, supporting real-time problem identification, procedural guidance, and clinical decision-making. Within Advanced Practice Nursing, it enhances the accuracy and safety of care, particularly in urological assessment. As traditional physical examination methods have limited accuracy for estimating bladder volume, POCUS provides a rapid, safe, and reliable alternative, improving bladder assessment, guiding catheterization decisions, and reducing unnecessary procedures, complications, and length of hospital stay. Inclusion Criteria: We will include: (1) primary and secondary studies; (2) studies that address the use of ultrasonography to assess bladder by nursing ; (3) studies in patients requiring bladder assessment and evaluation of elimination function in all healthcare sttings; (4) studies that describe nursing interventions that use ultrasonography to evaluate the bladder in nursing practice; (4) with no restriction on the year of publication. Exclusion Criteria: We will exclude: (1) studies that address the use of ultrasonography for bladder assessment by non-nursing professionals; (2) studies that do not clearly specify which professional performed the POCUS; (3) conference reports, expert opinion, book chapters and abstracts and reviews without defined methodology. Methods: The searches will be performed on electronic databases, gray literature, and on the reference list of included studies. The protocol will be written following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist and the JBI Collaboration and will be registered on the OSF platform. Studies extracted from the databases will be uploaded to the EndNote web for storage and removal of duplicates. These studies will then be uploaded to Rayyan's web application, where phases 1 (screening of titles and abstracts) and 2 (full reading of studies) will be performed by two independent reviewers. A third independent reviewer will be requested in the event of a disagreement between the two main reviewers regarding the inclusion/exclusion of the study. Results: - Conclusion: - KEY WORDS: Evidence-based nursing; Ultrasonography; Point-of-care ultrasound; POCUS; Nursing Diagnosis; Bladder Assessment; Urinary Retention.