Family-Centred Care in Adult Intensive Care Units: A Scoping Review Protocol of Secondary Evidence with a Focus on the Nursing Role

Admission to an adult intensive care unit (ICU) is a profoundly disruptive experience for both patients and their families. Family-Centred Care (FCC) is the predominant framework for addressing their needs, yet the secondary evidence base is heterogeneous and the specific nursing contribution remains insufficiently theorised. This protocol describes a scoping review designed to systematically map the secondary evidence on FCC in adult ICUs, with particular attention to the nursing role, the nurse–family relationship, and the instruments used to measure FCC-related constructs. Conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology and reported following the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), the review will search six databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane, Web of Science, and Scopus) alongside grey literature, with no date restrictions and eligible sources in English and Italian. Only formal secondary sources (i.e., systematic, scoping, integrative, and narrative reviews, clinical practice guidelines, consensus statements, and position papers) will be included. Two independent reviewers will screen records and extract data using a pre-tested charting tool. The resulting higher-order map of conceptual frameworks, interventions, implementation barriers and facilitators, measurement instruments, and outcomes will clarify the state of existing syntheses and orient future critical care nursing research, practice, and implementation. • Provides a structured, reproducible methodological framework (JBI methodology, PRISMA-ScR reporting) to systematically map the extensive and heterogeneous secondary evidence on Family-Centred Care (FCC) in adult ICUs.