Nurses’ competencies for the care of preterm infants in neonatal units: a scoping review protocol

This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the JBI guidelines and reported following the recommendations of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. Based on the elements identified within the PCC framework (population, concept, and context), the following guiding question was formulated: What competencies should be developed by undergraduate nursing students for the care of preterm infants in neonatal units? The inclusion criteria will be defined according to the population, concept, and context, encompassing scientific studies that address the objective of the review, regardless of methodological design (quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods studies, reviews, or experience reports), as well as unpublished studies (grey literature), national and international publications, clinical guidelines, and recommendations from organizations addressing competencies to be developed in the teaching–learning process related to the care of preterm infants in neonatal units. Exclusion criteria will include studies addressing other health disciplines unrelated to nursing, care provided by professionals other than nurses, studies conducted outside the neonatal context, and studies that do not involve care for preterm infants. In the preliminary search strategy, Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) were identified for databases in Portuguese, and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were used for English-language databases. Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT were applied to support the search strategyted to the care of preterm infants in neonatal units. Exclusion criteria will include studies addressing other health disciplines unrelated to nursing, care provided by professionals other than nurses, studies conducted outside the neonatal context, and studies that do not involve care for preterm infants. In the preliminary search strategy, Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) were identified for databases in Portuguese, and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) were used for English-language databases. Boolean operators AND, OR, and NOT were applied to support the search strategy. The following databases will be searched: National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health (PubMed/MEDLINE), CINAHL (via EBSCOhost), Embase, LILACS (via the Virtual Health Library), SciELO, Scopus, and Web of Science, due to their broad coverage and relevance to the research topic. Study selection will be performed independently by two reviewers through the screening of titles and abstracts, followed by full-text assessment. In cases of disagreement, a third reviewer will be cosulted to determine study inclusion. After data organization, the results will be presented using flow diagrams and accompanied by a narrative synthesis, in accordance with the methodological recommendations of the JBI.