Effectiveness of Nurse‐Led Early Mobility Protocols on the Outcomes of Critical Care Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis

ABSTRACT Aim This review evaluates the effectiveness of nurse‐led early mobility protocols on key patient outcomes, including length of ICU and hospital stay, body function, mobility, muscle strength and mortality. Design Systematic review and meta‐analysis. Methods This review was conducted, follow...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jing Xu, Shengyuan Wang, Qian Zhang, Yanfen Yao, Jing Yu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-05-01
Series:Nursing Open
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Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.70206
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Summary:ABSTRACT Aim This review evaluates the effectiveness of nurse‐led early mobility protocols on key patient outcomes, including length of ICU and hospital stay, body function, mobility, muscle strength and mortality. Design Systematic review and meta‐analysis. Methods This review was conducted, following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. Outcomes assessed included ICU stay, hospital stay, body function, mobility, muscle strength, and mortality. Meta‐analysis using a random‐effects model calculated pooled estimates such as weighted mean differences (WMD) and standardised mean differences (SMD) for continuous outcomes, and risk ratios (RR) for mortality. Results The pooled WMD indicated that nurse‐led early mobility protocols significantly reduced ICU stay by 1.8 days (WMD: −1.813; 95% CI: −3.072 to −0.555) and hospital stay by 2.6 days (WMD: −2.622; 95% CI: −5.122 to −0.123). No significant effects were observed for mobility (SMD: −0.245), body function (SMD: 0.223), muscle strength (SMD: 0.385) or mortality (RR: 1.117). Heterogeneity was substantial for most outcomes. Nurse‐led early mobility protocols effectively reduce ICU and hospital stay durations, suggesting their role in optimising critical care recovery. However, further high‐quality studies are needed to determine their impacts on other functional outcomes and long‐term recovery. No patient or public contribution.
ISSN:2054-1058