OBJECTIVE: The objective of this literature review was to examine what has been published about variability in clinical practice from the focus of nursing. METHODS: We performed a literature search in the principal international databases, selecting those most relevant works. RESULTS: The results were clustered into five groups: studies about variations with respect to guidelines and protocols; studies that analyze nursing practice and that of other health professionals; variations in procedures and nursing care; variations in practice between nurses and physicians; and studies that related variability with characteristics of professionals, units or healthcare centers. CONCLUSION: The majority of papers found were limited to showing the existence of variability, but few sought variables that predicted it. Future investigations should focus on finding predictors of variability to address unjustified variations that are detected.
Physician's practice patterns; Nursing; Review literature as topic
