Characteristics of advanced practice nurses' clinical competence in primary healthcare settings: a scoping review protocol.

Objective: This scoping review aims to identify the clinical competency characteristics, in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, of advanced practice nurses in primary care settings.

Introduction: Although much has been written about the competencies of advanced practice nurses, more detail about the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that inform their clinical competency in primary health care needs to be ascertained. This will promote the development, implementation, and evaluation of advanced nursing practice in contexts where it is unavailable.

Inclusion criteria: Studies that address the clinical competency characteristics of advanced practice nurses in primary health care settings will be considered for inclusion.

Methods: This review will be conducted according to JBI methodology for scoping reviews. A comprehensive search will be conducted in PubMed, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, Scopus, Virtual Health Library (VHL), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO), Embase (Elsevier), Science Direct (Elsevier), Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar for primary and secondary qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods studies on the topic of relevance. Gray literature will be searched in DART-E, TESES CAPES, CAUL (Australian Digital Theses), and Theses Canada Editorials. Letters, editorials, commentaries, conference abstracts, and documents published by advanced practice nurses' associations will also be considered for inclusion. Two independent reviewers will screen the studies at title and abstract and full text. The same reviewers will extract relevant data using an instrument developed by the reviewers. These data will be presented in a narrative synthesis to facilitate the analysis of the evidence found.

Review registration: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/tnrjz/.