Challenges for Improving the Quality of Nursing Care in Iran: A Review Study

Background & Aim: Today, improvement of quality of nursing services has faced numerous challenges. Therefore, recognizing the relevant aspects and concepts can help nursing managers properly plan their care programs. This study aimed to identify the challenges of nursing quality improvement in Iran. Materials & Methods: This systematic review was conducted by searching keywords such as “challenge”, “nursing care quality improvement”, and “Iran” in the articles published in the databases of Web of Sciences, PubMed, Google Scholar, SID and Magiran during 2000-2018. While 897 articles were retrieved after the initial search, a total of 16 articles (nine descriptive, two empirical, and five quasi-experimental studies) that met the inclusion criteria were entered into the study. Results: In this study, the main challenges in the improvement of quality of nursing cares in Iran were reported to be educational and management weakness, high workload of nurses, physical and mental stresses of nurses, and old methods of division of labor. The positive effects of communication with patients, application of nursing process, peer assessment and use of an educational supervisor have been established in studies conducted in an interventional manner to improve nursing care. Conclusion: According to the results of the study, interventions should be designed and implemented based on the quality improvement challenges in research in order to use their results in improving the quality of nursing service