Digital Interventions Used by Nurses in Pediatric Palliative Care: a scoping review protocol

Globally, it is estimated that more than 21 million children require pediatric palliative care (PPC) annually, with prevalence increasing due to therapeutic advances that prolong survival in complex conditions (Downing et al., 2025). Nurses simultaneously hold a central position within the healthcare team and maintain close proximity to both the child and family, positioning them ideally to deliver humanized, holistic care to children and families in pediatric palliative care settings. In recent years, digital health technologies have experienced significant expansion. Digital health interventions are considered to encompass information and communication systems (eHealth), telemedicine platforms, videoconferencing, mobile applications, and other digital tools that enable bidirectional communication between healthcare professionals, children, and families, as well as remote monitoring, education, and support for clinical decision-making. The literature demonstrates that digital tools can enhance communication, information sharing, education, and decision-making. Finucane et al. (2021) highlight the potential of digital health interventions to support integrated, person- and family-centered approaches in palliative care. From another perspective, digital technologies offer substantial potential to overcome geographical and temporal barriers, enabling more accessible monitoring and care delivery, particularly for families requiring frequent contact with healthcare teams (Ramos, 2023). Given the unique context of pediatric palliative care, digital interventions hold tremendous potential as resources to support nurses' care delivery. In PPC, the integration of digital interventions should be understood not merely as technical innovation, but as a means to enhance comfort and well-being for children and families. These can thus be conceptualized as potential care strategies employed by nurses to promote comfort (alleviating discomfort), provide safety and well-being, and support coping capacity in adversity, thereby operationalizing Kolcaba's comfort theory principles. Given the topic's relevance and the absence of existing systematized evidence, we aim to conduct a review study guided by the research question: "What digital interventions are used by nurses in pediatric palliative care?" The objective is to map these interventions used by nurses in PPC contexts, consolidating available evidence, guiding future practice, and identifying gaps to inform subsequent research and digital health policy. A structured, comprehensive synthesis of knowledge will enable nurses, managers, and researchers to better understand the potential of digital interventions in PPC and plan more consistent, safe, and child- and family-centered interventions. The proposed review study is a scoping review, which will follow the methodological guidelines of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI, 2024).