Nursing Grand Rounds: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Context: Nursing grand rounds (NGR) is a method to improve the nursing image and shed light on the process of developing professionalism in nursing. It aims at promoting evidence-based practice and offering an effective strategy to positively change patient care. In Iran, ground rounds is a relatively new concept; thus, there is little information about this strategy and its advantages and implementation. This study aimed to conduct an integrative review and classify the existing studies on NGR. Evidence Acquisition: The authors searched the keywords of ground rounds, nursing, and evidence-based practice in various databases including SID, Irandoc, Google Scholar, PubMed, Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect. Studies carried out between 2000 and 2019 fell within the scope of this study. The modified version of Cooper’s five-step approach to literature review was used to examine and integrate the existing NGR knowledge. These steps included problem identification, literature search, data evaluation (assessing the quality of data), data analysis and interpretation (summarizing the data), and result presentation. Results: The guidelines of Armola et al. (2010) were used in this study. Twelve studies meeting the inclusion criteria were reviewed and the results were presented in two areas of NGR benefits and implementation. Among the most important advantages of deploying NGR, one can point out that it provides an innovative and dynamic way to develop continuous and evidence-based learning to improve patient outcomes. Conclusions: NGR supports evidence-based nursing and more importantly, creates a social setting for learning not only science but also the art of nursing. Therefore, health care organizations should consider NGR as a way to demonstrate their commitment to developing nursing and evidence-based education and practice.