Sleep Deprivation and Quality of Care Among Shift-Working Nursing Professionals: A Scoping Review Protocol

Introduction: Nursing professionals are responsible for managing patient care. Since healthcare must be continuous and uninterrupted to meet patient needs, it demands night and rotating shift schedules that disrupt the staff’s circadian rhythm. This biological disruption decreases the sleep quality of these professionals, potentially compromising job performance, patient safety, and the quality of clinical care delivered. Consequently, this review aims to analyze the evidence from the last five years regarding the decline in sleep quality among nursing professionals and its impact on their quality of care. Objective: To map the available scientific evidence on sleep deprivation in nursing professionals working in a shift system. Method: A scoping review will be conducted following the PRISMA-ScR extension guidelines and the PCC framework. The search for primary studies (limited to the 2021-2026 period) will be carried out in the PubMed, Scopus, and Wiley Online Library databases. Additionally, Google Scholar will be used to identify gray literature. The screening and subsequent data charting processes will be performed independently by two reviewers using an Excel spreadsheet.