Perceptions of nurses and physicians on pay‐for‐performance in hospital: A systematic review of qualitative studies

AIMS: This study aimed to systematically examine perceptions of nurses and physicians on pay-for-performance in hospital. BACKGROUND: Pay-for-performance projects have proliferated over the past two decades, most systematic reviews of which solely focused on its effectiveness in primary health care and the physicians' or nurses' attitudes. However, systematic reviews of qualitative approaches for better examining perceptions of both nurses and physicians in hospital were lacking. EVALUATION: Electronic databases were systematically searched with date from the inception to 31 December 2020. Meta-aggregation synthesis methodology and the conceptual framework of the theory of planned behaviour were used to summarize findings. KEY ISSUES: A total of nine studies were included. Three major synthesized themes were identified: (1) perceptions of the motivation effects and positive outcomes, (2) perceptions about the design defects and negative effects and (3) perceptions of the obstacles in the implementation process. CONCLUSION: To maximize the intended positive effects, nurses' and physicians' perceptions should be considered and incorporated into the project design and implementation stage. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The paper gives enlightenment to nurse managers on improving and advancing the cause of nurses when planning for or evaluating their institutions' policies on pay-for-performance in the future research.