Mapping nurses’ roles and functions in home- and facility-based care: A scoping review

Role ambiguity and inconsistencies in nursing responsibilities and activities in home- and facility-based care may limit nurses’ ability to meet older people's needs and affect care quality. This scoping review aimed to map how nurses’ roles and functions (i.e. nursing practice) are described and to identify nursing models of care related to older people's care in home- and facility-based settings. PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO were searched for studies published between 2002 and 2022, with updates conducted in 2024 and 2026. Studies describing registered nurses, non-registered nurses or older people's perspectives were included. Data were extracted on responsibilities (roles), activities (functions) and nursing models of care. The review was reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews extension for Scoping Reviews. Forty-seven studies were included. Registered nurses were predominantly described in terms of responsibilities, including professional obligations, coordination, supervision, medication management and accountability, whereas non-registered nurses were mainly described through activities, including activities of daily living, technical- and medico-delegated care and active monitoring. Only one study described a nursing model of care. Overall, descriptions of nursing practice were limited and inconsistent, particularly in home-based care, with little knowledge of how responsibilities and activities were integrated across professional groups. These findings highlight the need for more detailed descriptions of nursing practice and further research into how responsibilities, activities, delegation, accountability and nursing models of care can be organised to support high-quality care for older people.

Registration: The scoping review protocol was registered with Open Science Framework doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ZAFJQ.