Nursing leadership and management in home care: A qualitative scoping review.

Aim: The purpose is to identify and synthesize the challenges of first-line nurse managers in home care concerning their managerial and leadership role, as described in current qualitative research literature.

Background: Increased responsibilities and shifting tasks in home care lead to challenges for first-line nurse managers. These challenges must be identified and evaluated to ensure quality care provision.

Evaluation: A scoping review mapped current qualitative research on first-line nurse managers in home care, focusing on their managerial and leadership role. A systematic search was conducted in CINAHL, Medline, EMBASE, and SweMed+. A thematic analysis was conducted on the four included studies.

Key Issue(s): First-line nurse managers' role in home care involves multiple responsibilities. Four themes emerged: "professional responsibilities," "relational responsibilities," "economic and organizational responsibilities," and "juggling responsibilities-a demanding balance."

Conclusion(s): Findings provide new knowledge on how first-line nurse managers balance responsibilities in their role in the home care context-a complex context different from institutional settings like hospitals and long-term care. A focus on first-line nurse managers' support needs is necessary. Furthermore, an extensive research gap concerning first-line nurse managers' leadership and management role in home care indicates a need to increase knowledge from a range of perspectives.

Implications For Nursing Management: To develop sustainable and robust nursing leadership and management in home care, there is a need to (a) clarify first-line nurse managers' role and set boundaries around their responsibilities and (b) strengthen support from superiors, which will help empower first-line nurse managers in their daily work.