Gottfried and Ansari (2022) developed district strategies in the USA to reduce student absenteeism. Similarly, Ray et al. (2018) in India provided recommendations for addressing this issue. Aseefa (2018) identified potential solutions to student absenteeism in Ethiopia. Shaygan et al. (2023) also conducted a study in Iran on preparing nursing students for mental health clinical engagement. In Nigeria, Chukwu et al. (2017) proposed various strategies to decrease the absenteeism rates of student nurses. Furthermore, Mothiba et al. (2018). recommended that nurse managers provide platforms to address psychological and professional problems experienced by student nurses in the clinical areas of a tertiary hospital in Limpopo province.

The statement highlights that, while the studies mentioned above have been conducted, there remains a gap in understanding the dynamics of absenteeism in clinical placements. Although different interventions have been developed in other countries and in South Africa, like the one by Mothiba et al. (2018), to address absenteeism, it remains a major issue. This suggests that while these strategies exist, they may not be effectively addressing the root causes of absenteeism. Given the persistence of absenteeism despite existing policies, studies, rules, and laws, this study sought to uncover the global interventions addressing student nurses’ absenteeism in clinical placement. Absenteeism during clinical placements is a significant issue, potentially compromising the quality of nursing education and leading to gaps in practical skills and knowledge (Huston et al., 2018). Addressing this problem is vital for both educational outcomes and patient care quality. A scoping review is needed to systematically map the existing literature, identify types of interventions, and highlight areas where further research is needed. This might assist researchers in identifying gaps regarding the type of studies that need to be conducted further. Thus, this paper aims to map the existing literature on global interventions addressing student nurse absenteeism during clinical placement.

The study followed the guidelines put forth by Arksey and O'Malley (2005) to conduct the scoping review. Various databases were used for searching for the relevant articles and were handled in the reference manager EndNote. Establishing a research topic, finding pertinent studies by creating eligibility requirements, and choosing pertinent studies were all steps in this approach. Following the extraction and analysis of the data from the pertinent research, the findings were compiled. A scoping review was chosen because of its ability to explore broader topics by mapping the existing literature and making recommendations for future studies.

The review team worked to design the search strategy. Google Scholar was also used to conduct a preliminary search. The development of the Interventions was done using the PEO (Population, Exposure, Outcome) Framework (Bass et al., 2024). Interventions are actions or processes taken to improve a condition. In this study, interventions mean actions taken to reduce student nurses’ absenteeism from the clinical areas. To answer the research question and create eligibility standards for pertinent studies. Therefore, the search phrases linked to P student nurses, E Interventions, and O Addressing Absenteeism were used to address the question of what interventions address student nurses’ absenteeism during clinical placement globally. A comprehensive search strategy was employed to identify relevant studies across multiple databases. The review used databases such as EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMERALD, Scopus, Sabinet, and Scielo. The search utilized a combination of keywords and Boolean operators, truncations, and MeSH terms to widen the search. This search string was used in the identified databases, and to align with each database’s advanced search, we requested the assistance of a faculty librarian as it is recommended for review studies (Tricco et al., 2018). The developed search string was: (“Addressing OR mitigating OR reducing”) AND (“Interventions” OR “Strategies” OR “Model” OR “Approaches” OR “Methods” OR “Guidelines” OR Programmes”) AND (Absenteeism OR Absence) AND (Student nurses OR Nursing Students) AND (Global).

Before exporting articles to a reference manager, EndNote 21, we developed inclusion and exclusion criteria for the time frame of the search focused on publications between 2014 and 2024 Peer-reviewed, qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-method studies were included, and systematic reviews were excluded because this is done in Meta-Analysis. While this scoping review only includes English-based studies, studies on global countries were included. The included population was student nurses. Articles that met the inclusion criteria were exported to the reference manager in preparation for performing screening. Table 1 below details the inclusion and exclusion criteria used in this scoping review.

To eliminate duplicates, the initial step was to combine all the articles from various databases in the reference manager of Endnote. Three reviewers (TCM, SM, and MM) divided up the articles to do title and abstract (T&A) screening followed by the duplicates and data extraction, with one reviewer (TCM) acting as the mediator for disagreements and process monitor. The three reviewers evaluated the quality of the selected studies and disagreement was addressed through the mediator (TCM). Articles that satisfied the inclusion requirements were transferred to a different EndNote group called full-text screening following T & A screening on reference management. Next, we used the “retrieve pdf” option under the “full-text screening” category. Google Scholar was used to access articles that were not available in the original databases. To aid in data synthesis, a data chart was made in Microsoft Word after all the articles were gathered. The reference management group tab was cleared of articles that did not fit the inclusion criteria during full-text screening, while the data graphing was updated with those that did. Moreover, before producing this article, we used the PRISMA-ScR checklist study (Arksey and O’Malley, 2005) for the rigor of the study.

After charting the data, the data was analyzed using descriptive analysis. A descriptive analysis was conducted, highlighting the years of publication, countries of publication, the study title, study participants, study methodologies, and study findings were used. Findings generated from the reviewed studies were grouped according to their similarities. The search identified 142 records, which were downloaded into Endnote. After screening titles and abstracts, articles were screened for full-text screening. Thereafter, duplicates were removed, and articles were excluded either because full text was not available or the focus of the study was not related to student nurses’ absenteeism, leaving 10 articles (Table 2).

The search resulted in the inclusion of 10 articles. Most of the studies (n = 5) used a qualitative approach (Brook and Kemp, 2021; Masutha, 2023; Hoebes and Ashipala, 2023; Van Hoof et al., 2021; Sethibe, 2023), followed by studies (n = 4) conducted using a quantitative approach (Agyare et al., 2018, p. 27; He et al., 2018; Martin et al., 2020; Jyoti Flinsi, 2019). Lastly, one study used mixed methods (Currie et al., 2014). It is not astonishing that most of the studies used qualitative studies as more individuals required in-depth information on the interventions that worked (Brook and Kemp, 2021; Masutha, 2023; Hoebes and Ashipala, 2023; O’Sullivan et al., 2021; Sethibe, 2023). In context, it became evident that absenteeism is a significant global concern, with most studies conducted in Africa. The provided chart highlights that interventions have been implemented in various countries, including England (Brook and Kemp, 2021), South Africa (Masutha, 2023; Sethibe, 2023), Namibia (Hoebes and Ashipala, 2023), Ghana (Agyare et al., 2018), India (Jyoti Flinsi, 2019), Ireland (Van Hoof et al., 2021), Britain (Currie et al., 2014; Brook and Kemp, 2021), Australia (He et al., 2018), and the USA (Martin et al., 2020). The data showcase that student nurses’ absenteeism is a global phenomenon, with different authors attempting to address it worldwide. In getting the correct interventions, most of these studies relied on the views of student nurses (Masutha, 2023), student nurses (Brook and Kemp, 2021), student nurses (Currie et al., 2014), and registered nurses (Hoebes and Ashipala, 2023) (Figure 1).

The study aimed to identify the existing interventions addressing student nurses’ absenteeism during clinical placement in South Africa. According to the findings, the existing studies on interventions indicated that for the student nurses’ absenteeism to be addressed in clinical areas, several interventions should be implemented in the clinical areas. Brook and Kemp (2021) highlighted that some staff members faced challenges enforcing proper attendance. Students indicated that these issues could be mitigated by developing clear and practical rostering guidelines. On the other hand, Masutha (2023) reported that student nurses indicated that a comprehensive student’ nurses’ orientation should be done on the layout of the psychiatric ward, types of mental health care users, mental health care users’ behaviors, and how to handle mental health care users. This view is supported by Sethibe (2023), who emphasized the importance of providing orientation programs before starting psychiatric clinical placements, and Jyoti Flinsi (2019), who advocated for ensuring that students are thoroughly oriented in the clinical setting. Similarly, Shaygan et al. (2023) indicated that mental preparation is necessary for students to overcome fears and worries regarding taking care of mental health care users during clinical placement.