Missed nursing care in Australia: Exploring the contributing factors

Background: Nurses are increasingly ending their shifts with outstanding tasks and missing vital aspects of patient care. Research has indicated that this could have a detrimental effect on both nurse and pa-tient outcomes. The connection between inadequate staffing levels and missed nursing care is well docu-mented in the research. However, other contributing factors leading to missed nursing care remain uncer-tain. This scoping review seeks to identify the contributing factors to missed nursing care in an Australian context. Aim: To determine the contributing factors to missed nursing care by registered nurses in Australian hospitals. Methods: MEDLINE, CINAHL, and PubMed were searched for primary and secondary research articles. A scoping review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews. Data from the studies was analysed by two independent reviewers and presented with a narrative synthesis of the findings. Findings: Seventeen studies were conducted in Australia. The main contributing factors to missed nursing care were: Inadequate staffing, environmental factors, and urgent situations. Nurses' poor insight into personal and professional accountability was also found to contribute to missed nursing care. Discussion: This review adds an important perspective to the impact of staffing on missed nursing care due to the mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in Australia, which has not been investigated in other coun-tries. It found that mandated nurse-to-patient ratios can lead to a reduction in missed nursing care. Conclusion: Further research is required into mandated nurse-to-patient ratios and a nurse's personal and professional accountability and missed nursing care. (c) 2021 Australian College of Nursing Ltd. Published by Elsevier Ltd.