Nursing interventions and activities for patients with multiple traumas: An integrative review

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to identify nursing interventions and activities for patients with multiple traumas who have variations in physical mobility.

Methods

We used integrative literature review following Whittemore and Knafl method and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses’ guidelines and adopting the Oxford Center for Evidence-Based Classification Medicine – Levels of Evidence. The data collection was carried out between October and December 2019 and updated in May 2022, in the following databases: Virtual Health Library, Cochrane Library, Excerpta Medica dataBASE, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System Online, PubMed®, SciVerse Scopus, The Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and Web of Science.

Findings

There were 103 articles to be fully read and evaluated. From these, 34 publications were selected. Most nursing interventions and activities identified were placed in the NIC class Activity and Exercise Management in the Physiological: Basic domain, which has interventions to organize or to assist with physical activity, energy conservation, and expenditure; followed by Elimination Management (interventions to establish and maintain regular bowel and urinary elimination patterns and manage complications due to altered patterns); Immobility Management (interventions to manage restricted body movement and the sequelae); Nutrition Support (interventions to modify or maintain nutritional status); Physical Comfort Promotion (interventions to promote comfort using physical techniques); and Self-Care Facilitation (interventions to provide or assist with routine activities of daily living).

Conclusions

The interventions and nursing activities found in this research were not only related to the change in mobility in victims of multiple traumas but also aimed to prevent the consequences of immobility and to take care of already established conditions.

Implications for the nursing practice

This research enables the taxonomy's development and the validation of interventions for selected groups of patients. This allows the contribution to the development of the NIC—an important resource to improve nursing practice in teaching, research, and care.