BACKGROUND
Climate change is a major health issue and nurses need to be involved in combating it at both the individual and collective levels. A few recent studies have embarked on the process of examining the perceptions of these health professionals relative to climate change, but there is still very little known about this subject and no study has conducted an exploratory review of the literature on nurses' perceptions of this phenomenon.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this protocol is to develop a research strategy for an exploratory review of the literature focused on identifying nurses' perceptions of climate change.
METHODS
Firstly, with the help of a specialized librarian, we defined keywords and their combinations using an iterative process, to develop a documentary search strategy. This strategy was tested in four bibliographic databases: MEDLINE (PubMed), CINAHL, Embase, Web of Science. The next step will be for two members of our research team to carry out a two-stage selection process using the online systematic review software Covidence. They will carry out this selection process independently, with the aim of identifying relevant studies that meet the inclusion criteria for our exploratory review. Finally, data on year of publication, authors, geographic area, article type, study objectives, methodology, and key findings will be extracted from selected articles for analysis. A search of the grey literature will be conducted to supplement the results of the bibliographic database search.
RESULTS
The findings should make it possible to more clearly define nurses' perceptions of climate change, as well as the role they can play and what they need to be able to bring forward solutions to this phenomenon. The findings should also serve to guide the health sector's interventions aimed at preparing its professionals for the potential threats of climate change.
CONCLUSIONS
This study will open up new research perspectives on how to equip nurses to better integrate a response to climate change issues into their professional practice.
CLINICALTRIAL
Not applicable