Missed Nursing Care during the Perioperative Period: A Dual-Perspective Scoping Review from Nurses and Patients

Objective This scoping review aimed to identify available assessment tools for missed perioperative nursing care, examine the types, frequency, and contributing factors of nurse-reported missed care, and explore the dynamic changes in patient-reported missed care across preoperative and postoperative phases, thereby providing a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon from the dual perspectives of nurses and patients. Methods This scoping review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) guidelines and the PRISMA-ScR checklist. Five databases (PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus) were searched for studies published from 2006 to January 18, 2025. Study selection and full-text review were performed independently by two reviewers. Discrepancies were resolved through consensus or by a third reviewer. The review protocol has been registered with the Open Science Framework. Results A total of 14 publications were included, comprising 7 cross-sectional, 4 longitudinal, and 3 methodological studies which focused on missed nursing care reported by perioperative nurses and patients. From the nursing perspective, "Communication” was the most frequently missed care domain, while conclusions regarding the “Safety” domain were inconsistent across studies. Contributing factors were primarily stemmed from resource constraints and individual nurse-related factors. From the patient perspective, reported needs shifted dynamically across the perioperative period: informational needs were paramount preoperatively, transitioning to a focus on physical recovery, pain management, and psychological support postoperatively. Notably, nurse-reported and patient-reported missed perioperative nursing care exhibit substantial discrepancies. Conclusions This study demonstrates that the nursing perspective focuses on “task completion”, while the patient's perspective focuses on “experience optimization”. Future research should address the limitations of a single perspective by developing instruments that facilitate collaboration among nurses, patients, and family members to achieve a precise alignment between nursing supply and patient care demand.