The Distribution of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Nurses in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Scoping Review Protocol

Abstract BackgroundAlthough measures have been put in place, musculoskeletal injuries are noticeable high among the nursing fraternity with Low back pain (LBP) being the most prevalent. It is evident that healthcare professionals are in constant exposure to occupational hazards such as musculoskeletal injuries as they discharge their professional duties. Not only does LBP affect the health of the nurses, it also creates a huge burden on the health systems with consequent poor performance at the workplace as well as economic burden. Therefore, the main objective of this study is to map evidence on the prevalence, incidence, mortality, risk factors and economic costs of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in sub Saharan Africa (SSA).Methods and analysisScoping review will be done to explore, describe and map literature on the prevalence, incidence, mortality, risk factors, and economic costs related to MSD among nurses in SSA. The search will be done using databases such as PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, Google Scholar, nursing academic editions and World Health Organization (WHO) library databases. The search will look for primary studies within peer-reviewed articles as well as gray literature. In addition, the researcher will search the articles using keywords from the included studies as well as the list of references for related studies. The screening will be guided by the inclusion and exclusion criteria and the scoping review will be reported in accordance to PRISMA-P guidelines. The NVivo 12 data analysis software will be used to generate themes, and a thematic content analysis will be used to give the narrative account of the review.DiscussionAt the end, this study anticipates to uncover the relevant literature in SSA in regard to prevalence, incidence, mortality, risk factors and costs related to MSD among nurses; furthermore findings from this study will help in identifying research gaps, informing policy, priority in funding and planning and to guide future research.