A Scoping Review on Determining Australian Nurse Engagement in Eye Care Settings

Abstract

Purpose As the Australian population grows and ages, the demand for eye care services, and nurses to provide the services, is expected to increase. This will impact nurses, who are Australia’s largest health-care provider group. Understanding and mapping the current role and use of nurses in eye care is an essential first step for future health workforce planning and development. To map their engagement, we undertook a scoping review to gain an understanding of the current Australian nurse eye care workforce landscape, to help guide and support future workforce development activities. Secondly, we evaluated if publications in this field incorporated or mentioned the Australian Ophthalmic Nursing Association’s National Standards (Practice standards) in their publication. This review also offers other nations and eye care providers the opportunity to evaluate their own health workforce plan and nurse utility. Study Design and Methods We conducted a review of academic and grey literature, via various search engines, and an inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results We uncovered 11 publications. Of those, five were academic papers examining extended and advanced nursing practice, one was a letter to the editor, two were industry feature reviews, two were industry reports and the final was the Practice Standards. Key themes throughout indicated the benefit of nurse training and nurse involvement in eye care. Overall, there was insufficient information or data to describe nurse deployment, practice and utility. Finally, the Practice Standards were not referenced in any publication. Conclusion There is insufficient published information to calculate the level and involvement of nurses, or describe their existing role, advancement or future deployment in eye care in Australia. Without clear information, Australia is unable to develop effective health workforce strategies to attract, train, retain, and appropriately deploy nurses to meet future eye care needs.

Australian Nurse Engagement in Eye Care: A National Survey

“…We started by completing a scoping review 6 which identified gaps in existing knowledge and assisted in developing the survey questions. We also examined surveys from other eye care providers, eg orthoptists, 8 to ensure our questions and outcomes were consistent with other professions, and data could be used by the sector and employers when designing future interdisciplinary eye care workforce plans.…”

“…Despite their prevalence, the existence of sub-speciality eye care nursing associations and national ophthalmic nursing practice standard guidelines, 5 there is limited information regarding nurse engagement in eye care in Australia in terms of their degree of involvement, training, deployment, and support. 6 There is no indication of their opinion and recommendations regarding their role today nor how future workforce numbers and skill levels will impact services, positively or negatively.…”

“…Therefore, there are no national data points exploring nurse engagement and evolution over time. 6 The Australian Ophthalmic Nurses Association (AONA) 7 are the only collective data point. Nationally in 2022, AONA had n=426 members, of which n=412 were nurses (Personal communication with lead researcher Heather Machin; March 2022).…”