Nursing resources and patient outcomes in intensive care units: A protocol for systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: As nursing resources is directly related to patient outcomes in the intensive care unit setting, identifying factors related to nursing resources at various levels could contribute to improving those outcomes. This study aims to determine the association of nursing resources with outcomes of intensive care unit patients. METHOD: This study adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis for Protocols. Chinese electronic Database (Chinese Biomedical Literature Database, Wanfang, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure) and international electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Web of Science) will be searched for all relevant published articles, with no restrictions on the year of publication or language. Study selection, data collection and assessment of study bias will be conducted independently by a pair of independent reviewers. The Newcastle–Ottawa Scale tool will be used for the risk of bias assessment. The Grading of Recommendations Assessment Development and Evaluation system will be used to assess the quality of evidence. The statistical analysis of this meta-analysis will be calculated by Review manager version 5.3. RESULTS: The results of this study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. CONCLUSION: The findings of this systematic review will provide a high-quality synthesis of latest evidence and provide a basis for assessing the association of nursing resources on patients’ outcomes in intensive care units. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: 10.17605/OSF.IO/9FNEX