Acute patient care is becoming increasingly complex due to various factors (e.g., demographic changes, multimorbidity, organizational changes). Educating healthcare professionals as advanced practitioners at Master's level is one response to these challenges. Meanwhile, there are several empirical insights into advanced roles.
To provide an overview on the impact of advanced practitioners on acute care patients' outcomes and safety.
We conducted a mini-review. Therefore, a systematic literature search was carried out in the four databases Medline, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and PEDro. After four researchers screened the results and extracted the data independently, the included studies were analyzed thematically and clustered along patients' outcomes. The results are presented narratively.
4,332 records were identified in the systematic search, and 67 articles were included in our review. Of these, the majority (
The identified studies highlight the benefits of advanced practitioners for acute care patients. While most studies were conducted in emergency departments or intensive care units, further research concerning other acute settings (e.g., psychiatry) or clinical conditions (e.g., cognitive impairment) is recommended.