Table 1 PICoS framework and operationalisation of core concepts

Population

Key stakeholders, here:

Nurses, older people and significant others

Nurses or nursing staff, are operationalised as follows:

Registered and nonregistered nurses, e.g., registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, nursing aides or healthcare assistants [31]

Older people are operationalised as follows:

People who are 65 years or older

Significant others are operationalised as follows:

Individuals with a close relationship to the older person, not necessarily defined by kinship or by being an unpaid carer

(Phenomenon of) Interest

Descriptions of functional ability limitations and/or frailty among older people

Models of care targeting functional ability limitations and/or frailty in relation to older people

Functional ability limitations are operationalised as follows: A new loss of independence in self-care activities or as a deterioration in self-care skills [32, 33]

Frailty is defined as: ‘a state of vulnerability to poor resolution of homoeostasis after a stressor event and is a consequence of cumulative decline in many physiological systems during a lifetime’ [34, p. 1]

Models of care are operationalised as follows: A map of care (i.e., nursing- activities and/or interventions) aiming to safeguard that the older person with complex (care) needs receive the right care, from the right person and at the right time, hence outlining the best practice of care [19]

Context

Home- and facility-based care

Home- and facility-based care is operationalised as follows: Healthcare delivered over prolonged periods of time in the home or in a facility, i.e., home health nursing, residential aged care facilities, nursing homes or similar [35,36,37]. Please note that long-term care is at times used synonymously with these two concepts in the text

Study design

All study designs