COVID-NURSE. The development, testing and evaluation of a COVID-19 fundamental nursing care protocol: a randomised controlled trial

Background: nursing care is a key determinant of patient experience and correlated withsafety, clinical effectiveness, care quality, treatment outcomes and reduced overall serviceuse. No evidence-based nursing protocols exist to address the unique challenges ofnursing hospitalised patients with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.Aim: to co-create and evaluate the impact on patient experience, care quality, functionalability, treatment outcomes and costs of a nursing care protocol specifically addressingthe fundamental care requirements of hospitalised patients with the SARS-CoV-2 virus notinvasively ventilated.Methods: 2-stage mixed-methods programme, following revised 2020 complexinterventions guidance, of: 1) rapid-review, survey, co-creation consensus development ofa nursing protocol; 2) rapid-cycle cluster randomised controlled trial with embeddedprocess and economic evaluations.Deliverables:1.Fundamental nursing care protocol for hospitalised patients with the SARS-CoV-2 virusnot invasively ventilated, with proven effectiveness on patient experience, care quality,functional ability and treatment outcomes within 9 months of project inception.2.Feasible, acceptable and 'implementation-optimised' protocol for widespreadimplementation, through co-creation and changes implemented during rapid cycle trialwaves.3.Adaptable protocol designed to be generalisable for environments such as care homes,patients with other conditions requiring isolation and to global health systems viaknowledge gained in a process analysis of intervention fidelity, mechanisms, contextualfactors and implementation.4.Guidelines, education materials and strategies accessible via Health Education England,the Open University's FutureLearn web platform, and experienced NHS sites acting astraining hubs for other health Trusts/care homes/global health systems.