Implementation of interventions to maintain and promote the functional mobility of nursing home residents – a scoping review

BACKGROUND: To provide an overview of the available evidence on the implementation of direct and capacity-building interventions to promote and maintain the functional mobility of nursing home residents. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review following the methodological guidance for the conduct of scoping reviews as described by the Joanna Briggs Institute. We searched for studies in MEDLINE (via PubMed) and CINAHL (via EBSCO). We conducted a qualitative content analysis of the included studies with deductive categories based on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). RESULTS: Ultimately, we included 8 studies on direct interventions, 6 studies on capacity-building interventions, and 2 studies on both types of interventions in our review. Seven studies provided evidence on implementation strategies comprising discrete as well as multifaceted, multilevel strategies. Most of the studies did not systematically evaluate the strategies but remained at a descriptive level. All 16 studies provided evidence of influencing factors. We identified 32 of the 37 influencing factors of the CFIR. The five most frequent influencing factors were available resources (n = 14), access to knowledge and information (n = 12), patient needs and resources (n = 10), knowledge and beliefs about the intervention (n = 10) and compatibility (n = 9). CONCLUSIONS: The available evidence on the implementation of functional mobility interventions in nursing homes is rather limited. This emphasizes the need for further research. Regarding implementation strategies, the systematic evaluation and further development of the reported promising approaches might be a starting point. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12877-023-04213-5.