Abstract
Background: There is evidence that person-centred care has positive effects, and the research field is growing fast and is cumbersome to overview. The purpose of this scoping review is to present an overview of the international research literature on person-centred care.
Approach: Relevant literature indexed in PubMed, Scopus, PsychINFO, CINAHL and Web of Science was retrieved. Literature searches were developed using index terms and free text words related to person-centred care. A variety of terms such as person-centred, patient-centred, client-centred, woman-centred, child-centred, family-centred and people-centred, including all variations on term endings, were included. No time restriction was used but language was restricted to English. Methods of combined manual and computer-assisted were used for screening. The initial project idea was anchored in the Gothenburg University Centre for Person-Centred Care, the GPCC, steering committee in which a senior patient partner was a member. Two patient representatives/partners were included in the project group.
Results: In total, 1 351 publications were included. Theoretical and empirical studies were most prevalent in the sample. For empirical studies the most common setting was hospital care, and the study population was most often health professionals or patients. The most frequently used term was patient-centred, followed by person-centred and family-centred. Research from six continents was included, and several research clusters were revealed.
Implications: The review provides an overview of the field as well as includes a discussion about the current barriers in being able to provide such an overview. The review shows for example that literature using a variety of centredness terms is eligible to include in a review on person-centred care. Transparent use of terminology (as well as underlying conceptualisations) in research is critical. This in order to prevent fragmentation of knowledge in future studies attempting towards person-centred care research synthesis, and in turn enabling research-based policy and practice development.