Nursing contributions within the one health framework: a scoping review with strategic recommendations

Abstract

The One Health approach integrates human, animal, and ecosystem health. Despite alignment with nursing practice, its role remains underexplored. This review aimed to identify and map nursing contributions that align with One Health principles across different contexts. A scoping review was conducted following the Arksey and O’Malley framework. A search strategy combining the search terms One Health and Nurs* was applied across eight bibliographic databases, complemented by targeted searches of institutional repositories from the Quadripartite One Health collaboration, to identify literature explicitly articulating a relationship between nursing and One Health. Searches were conducted in February 2026. No restrictions were applied regarding study design, publication type, or publication year. From 2922 initial records, eight documents were included. No included document evaluated the implementation or outcomes of a nursing intervention. The documents described, empirically examined, proposed or recommended nursing contributions across key domains: infectious disease prevention; health education and community engagement; antimicrobial stewardship; surveillance and early detection; environmental and climate-related actions; interprofessional collaboration; and policy engagement, with sociocultural responsiveness identified as a cross-cutting dimension. The findings highlight a central paradox: nursing practice is described as aligning closely with One Health principles, yet this contribution remains insufficiently recognised in the literature, education, and policy frameworks. The contributions identified span multiple levels, from individual care to system-level action, and the included literature positions the profession as a potential actor in operationalising One Health. However, the evidence base remains fragmented and largely descriptive, highlighting the need for more robust empirical research.