ROLE OF NURSING IN EARLY SCREENING OF AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER IN CHILDREN: NARRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

ACKGROUND: The nursing profession plays a fundamental role in the process of early detection of autism. For this reason, it must focus its professional skills on the family, assuming different disciplinary roles. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the available scientific evidence on the role of nursing in the early investigation of autism spectrum disorder. METHODOLOGY: A narrative review was carried out from July 2022 to April 2023. The included texts were in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Four databases were used: Pubmed, Scielo, CUIDEN, and Dialnet. RESULTS: 146 studies were found and evaluated according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Six articles were finally identified related to the topic of investigation: 4 American, 1 Japanese and 1 European. CONCLUSIONS: The educational role: the most frequently mentioned and recognized by the discipline. Intrinsic association towards the family is evident; training deficiencies in the university curriculum and innovation in educational technologies are mentioned. The management role: the M-Chat instrument is validated as an executive and evaluative action recognized by nurses, but a lack of technical standardization is mentioned; also, intersectoral linkage is lacking and action protocols need to be leveled. The care role: interventions in the identification of early signs stand out and multidisciplinary coercion emerges; the key is family coping. The investigative role: there is a lack of development and expansion of publications; the ethical dimension is recognized by nurses but little mentioned by family; the work of accompaniment and humanized care, always linked to management, stands out.