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. 2022 Apr 6;19(7):4382.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph19074382.

The State of the Evidence about the Family and Community Nurse: A Systematic Review

Federica Dellafiore  1 , Rosario Caruso  2 , Michela Cossu  3 , Sara Russo  4   5 , Irene Baroni  2   5 , Serena Barello  6 , Ida Vangone  5   7 , Marta Acampora  6 , Gianluca Conte  2   5 , Arianna Magon  2   5 , Alessandro Stievano  8 , Cristina Arrigoni  1   2   7
Affiliations

The State of the Evidence about the Family and Community Nurse: A Systematic Review

Federica Dellafiore et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: The increase in chronic degenerative diseases poses many challenges to the efficacy and sustainability of healthcare systems, establishing the family and community nurse (FCN) who delivers primary care as a strategic role. FCNs, indeed, can embrace the complexity of the current healthcare demand, sustain the ageing of the population, and focus on illness prevention and health promotion, ensuring a continuous and coordinated integration between hospitals and primary care ser. The literature on FCNs is rich but diverse. This study aimed to critically summarise the literature about the FCN, providing an overall view of the recent evidence.

Methods: A state-of-art systematic review was performed on PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus, employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement and checklist to guide the search and reporting.

Results: Five interpretative themes emerged from the 90 included articles: clinical practice, core competencies, outcomes, Organisational and educational models, and advanced training program.

Conclusions: FCNs can make a major contribution to a population's health, playing a key role in understanding and responding to patients' needs. Even if the investment in prevention does not guarantee immediate required strategies and foresight on the part of decisionmakers, it is imperative to invest more political, institutional, and economic resources to support and ensure the FCNs' competencies and their professional autonomy.

Keywords: community nurse; family nurse; patient-centred care; state-of-art systematic review.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
PRISMA 2020 flow diagram for new systematic reviews, including searches of databases, registers, and other sources.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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