Many articles in the nursing literature speak to the importance of trust in promoting favorable clinical outcomes. Abel and Efird (2013) found that patient trust in the healthcare provider predicted medication compliance. Wong and Giallonardo (2013) found that greater nurse trust in nurse leadership was associated with lower frequencies of adverse patient outcomes. Nilsson et al. (2011) found that when children trust their nurse to perform trauma wound dressing changes, the children can focus on distraction that enhances their pain management.
Additional outcomes related to trust were found in the nurse trust literature. Clarke et al. (2012) found that appreciative inquiry builds trust among staff involved in unit to unit transfers and improves communication and quality of care. Bobbio and Manganelli (2015) found that servant leadership was positively associated with nurse trust in nursing leadership, which was negatively correlated with emotional exhaustion, burnout, and cynicism among nurses. Lehmann-Willenbrock et al. (2012) found that nurses’ trust in co-workers significantly predicted nurse well-being and team commitment. Tang et al. (2013) found that respect and trust affected physician-nurse collaboration. Kalisch et al. (2012) found that staff on units with low levels of missed nursing care trusted each other more than staff on units with high levels of missed nursing care.
If nursing is going to continue to espouse the importance of trust in promoting positive clinical outcomes, research framed around theory and theory development needs to be conducted and what is known about EBP pertaining to trust needs to be identified, disseminated, and applied to practice. However, upon reviewing the research literature pertaining to nursing and trust, only one systematic review was found (Leslie & Lonneman, 2016). With a narrow focus on the home healthcare registered nurse-patient relationship, the generalizability of this review to broader nursing care is questionable. In addition, a search of PROSPERO in June 2016 revealed no published protocols pertaining to a systematic review or meta-analysis of nursing trust research.
Not being able to summarize the state of knowledge of the nursing trust research literature impairs nursing scholars in understanding what has been found to date, and therefore in conducting studies to build on what is currently known to systematically advance the body of knowledge.
The purpose of this global systematic review is to understand what is currently known in the nursing trust research literature. Clarity regarding the state of the nursing trust research literature will enable nurse scholars to plan studies that will systematically advance the knowledge of how trust can promote favorable clinical outcomes. A well thought out plan to advance the nursing trust research literature will enable nursing science to make greater strides. By understanding nursing and trust, evidence-based practices can be identified, disseminated, and applied in order to favorably influence clinical outcomes. For these reasons, a systematic review of the global research literature pertaining to nursing and trust was undertaken.
To achieve the purpose of this systematic review, literature evaluating the association between nurses, trust, and clinical outcomes—from both peer-reviewed published scientific literature, and relevant unpublished documents such as scientific publications from popular press, blogs, conference proceedings and presentations categorized as “gray literature”—was identified. To this end, the following research questions were explored.
- What is currently known in the global nursing trust research literature regarding antecedents, attributes, and consequences of trust?
- What constructs did trust emerge as an (a) antecedent, (b) attribute, (c) consequence, (d) theme, or (e) subtheme of?
- If trust was found to relate to other constructs, how might these constructs be related?
- Which nursing trust antecedents, attributes, and consequences are similar across type of nursing relationship (nursing student to faculty/preceptor, nurse to nurse peer, nurse to non-nurse peer, nurse to subordinate, nurse to superior, patient to nurse, family member to nurse)?
- Which nursing trust antecedents, attributes, and consequences are different across type of nursing relationship (nursing student to faculty/preceptor, nurse to nurse peer, nurse to non-nurse peer, nurse to subordinate, nurse to superior, patient to nurse, family member to nurse)?
- What theoretical frameworks were used in the nursing trust research literature?
- What can we conclude from the qualitative studies?
- What would a preliminary model of nursing trust antecedents, attributes, and consequences look like for various types of nursing relationships (nursing student to faculty/preceptor, nurse to nurse peer, nurse to non-nurse peer, nurse to subordinate, nurse to superior, patient to nurse, family member to nurse)?
Methods:
To generate search terms for retrieving published peer reviewed articles from PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO®, and Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database was searched for vocabulary related to “nurse” and “trust” on October 31, 2016. Articles were retrieved from inception of these databases to 2016. Searches were limited to literature published in English and on human subjects. Literature retrieved from all sources were combined and catalogued in one library for further review based on defined inclusion or exclusion criteria.
To develop a comprehensive list of search terms and to identify the body of literature potentially available for systematic review, a preliminary search was conducted in PubMed Health with the search string “nurs* and trust” on November 27, 2016; 7,424 articles were identified. To ensure consistency in inclusion and exclusion of literature in the review and data abstraction process, a random 1% sample of the categorized literature will be re-reviewed and classified by a reviewer other than the initial reviewer. Discrepancies in the review process will be resolved through discussion. A meta-analysis will be conducted on the quantitative data abstracted from the identified relevant literature. Qualitative data abstracted from the relevant literature will be summarized.
Results:
This poster will present the findings of a global systematic review of the nurse trust research literature. Preliminary data has been collected, the research is ongoing, and data are being retrieved for analysis.
Conclusion:
Pending final analysis of data.