Impact of nurse-surgeons on patient-centred outcomes: A systematic review.

Background: Nurse-surgeons have been performing surgeries for decades. Yet, their impact on perioperative clinical outcomes has not been explored in detail. Objective: To investigate the impact of nurse-surgeons on patient-centred outcomes. Design: Systematic review. Method: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses flow diagram and checklist for systematic reviews were used as the screening and reporting guideline. CINAHL, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, and PubMed databases were searched for articles that fit the review's eligibility criteria. A combination of Medical Subject Headings, keywords and filters for each database were used. Following screening and full text review, the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool was used for quality assessment and the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations framework for certainty and confidence assessment. Narrative synthesis was used to report the findings due to the design heterogeneity of the included studies. Results: Forty-eight ( Conclusions: Nurse-surgeons performed safe, satisfactory, and high-quality surgeries with minimal perioperative complications similar to physicians. The use of nurse-surgeons has significantly reduced waiting lists regardless of surgical speciality. Policies around nurse-surgeon practice needs to be developed at national and international levels to streamline the delivery of much needed surgical services amidst the coronavirus pandemic in the areas of cancer diagnostic surgeries, emergency surgeries, minor surgeries, and remote and rural health.