Clinical nursing and midwifery research in Middle Eastern and North African Countries: A Scoping Review

Abstract

The professions of nursing and midwifery currently face many challenges, such as an increasing number of patients with communicable and non-communicable diseases, which strains resources and requires nurses and midwives to develop their knowledge and skills to a higher level. This is also true in the Middle East, including the Mediterranean East and North African regions, which means it is vitally important that nurses and midwives have access to and use current research to inform their practice, with research targeting the most relevant issues, including complex humanitarian emergency situations that increase health issues and challenge health infrastructure. For this to be achieved, a scoping review of the indexed clinical nursing and midwifery literature in the Middle East was performed to identify gaps in clinical nursing and midwifery research and areas requiring focus. A search of PubMed, CINAHL/EBSCO, EMBASE, the Jordanian Database for Nursing Research resulted in 210/1398 articles which met the inclusion criteria: (1) original research, (2) conducted in Middle Eastern countries as defined by the World Health Organization, (3) had at least one nurse or midwife author (but not limited to nurses in Middle Eastern countries), (4) published in an indexed, peer-reviewed journal between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2015, (5) included patient outcomes in the results, (6) written in English or Arabic and (7) included an abstract. Studies were found from 10 of the 22 countries; the majority (n = 199; 94.76%) was conducted in three countries: Jordan, Iran and Lebanon. Most studies (n = 158, 75.24%) used quantitative designs, primarily cross-sectional, descriptive studies (n = 106) and the most frequently researched topics were related to maternal child health and women′s health (n = 95, 48.5%). Strategies are needed to encourage collaboration between nursing and midwifery faculty members including clinicians to assure that clinical research is disseminated and used to improve patient care.