Facilitators and barriers to implement nurse-led physical activities for people with dementia in nursing homes: a protocol for a mixed-methods systematic review

INTRODUCTION: Dementia is a major neurocognitive disorder and accounts for a great proportion of nursing home residents. Bodily symptoms such as gait, balance difficulties and muscle weakness are common in people with dementia. Physical activities are important to maintain and promote physical functioning and activities of daily living. Nurses are a prone stakeholder to deliver physical activity interventions in nursing homes. However, several barriers have been reported for implementing nurse-led physical activity programmes. Also synthesised strategies for sustainable implementation in nursing homes are lacking. We, therefore, aim to synthesise the evidence on physical activity interventions which can be led by nurses and to identify facilitators and barriers of sustainable implementation of physical activity for people with dementia. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will conduct a mixed-methods systematic review to (1) describe the characteristics of nurse-led physical activities for people with dementia living in nursing homes and to (2) determine facilitators and barriers for sustainable implementation of nurse-led physical activities for people with dementia in nursing homes. We will search four different electronic databases, do forward and backward citation tracking and will web-search additionally. We will also search through guideline databases. Two reviewers will independently screen the identified studies for their eligibility. Data extraction and critical appraisal of included studies will be performed by one reviewer and double-checked by another reviewer. We will analyse the data using an integrative mixed-method synthesis and we will summarise the findings narratively. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: No ethics approval is needed to perform this systematic review. We will publish our review results as scientific and non-scientific journal articles and we will hold an oral or a poster conference presentation. The review results will inform the development of structured and easy to understand guidance for nurses to initiate tailored physical activities for people with dementia in nursing homes.