Nursing Interventions Designed to Improve Healthcare in General Healthcare Settings for Adults Living with Mental Illness: A Scoping Review

Abstract

People living with mental illness have difficulty obtaining quality physical care services. Nurses find it hard to fully assume their role and adopt a person-centered approach when they care for people with both physical and mental health problems. A scoping review was carried out to document the breadth and depth of literature on nurse interventions designed to improve nursing care in general healthcare settings for adults living with mental illness. Two researchers independently screened titles, abstracts and full documents to obtain publications, and the relevant data was extracted from individual studies. Of the 384 studies identified, 16 documents were included in the study. Few interventions have been the subject of scientific publications and they are scattered in their objectives and very heterogeneous in their content. Interventions are often included in a large program that may be difficult to apply in various care settings. There are many different nursing roles and activities in care-management and in support of behavioral changes although their main measured outcomes differ. This study highlights a tendency for interventions to relegate people with mental health problems to specialized services, which reinforces the dichotomization of services and does not favor a holistic and person-centered approach. There is an urgent need to develop and evaluate nursing interventions in general healthcare settings for adults living with mental illness. The development of relevant continuing education and training must take into account both the point of view of the people living with mental illness and that of nurses.

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Quebec Network of Nursing Intervention Research. This source of funding was intended for a larger study project, one of the phases of which included this scoping review. The founder did not provide any data and had no influence on the results of this scoping review.

Author contributions

SL, JR, MCJ, and ALDM contributed to the study design and conduct, study selection, data screening, and extraction. Data synthesis and analysis was performed by five authors (SL, ALDM, MCJ, JR, AG). All the authors (SL, JR, ALDM, AG, MM, FG, MH, MCJ) contributed to writing the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No conflict of interest has been declared by the authors.

Correction statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Quebec Network of Nursing Intervention Research. This source of funding was intended for a larger study project, one of the phases of which included this scoping review. The founder did not provide any data and had no influence on the results of this scoping review.