Table 1.

Search strategy

PICo components	Inclusion criteria	Search terms (keywords/MeSH terms/index terms/free text words)	Limits
Participants	Caregiver, nurses, parents, health professionals	nurse*[All Fields] OR caregiver*[All Fields] OR parent*[All Fields] OR health care provider*[MeSH Terms] OR health professional*[MeSH Terms] OR health care worker* [All Fields]	Language: English Publication date: 1 January 2013 to 30 December 2023
Phenomena of interest	Barriers and enablers of quality high-acuity neonatal care in the NICU	barrier*[All Fields] OR enabler* [All Fields] OR facilitator*[All Fields] OR hindering factor*[All Fields] OR militating factor*[All Fields] OR challenge*[All Fields] OR neonatal intensive care unit [All Fields] OR NICU [All Fields] OR quality care [All Fields] OR high-acuity neonate*[All Fields]
Context	Studies conducted in sub-Saharan Africa	sub-Saharan Africa
Combine a single search strategy: (((“nurse*”[All Fields] OR “caregiver*”[All Fields] OR “parent*”[All Fields] OR ((“delivery of health care”[MeSH Terms] OR (“delivery”[All Fields] AND “health”[All Fields] AND “care”[All Fields]) OR “delivery of health care”[All Fields] OR (“health”[All Fields] AND “care”[All Fields]) OR “health care”[All Fields]) AND “provider*”[MeSH Terms]) OR ((“health”[MeSH Terms] OR “health”[All Fields] OR “health s”[All Fields] OR ”healthful”[All Fields] OR “healthfulness”[All Fields] OR “healths”[All Fields]) AND “professional*”[MeSH Terms]) OR “health care worker*”[All Fields]) AND “barrier*”[All Fields]) OR “enabler*”[All Fields] OR “facilitator*”[All Fields] OR “hindering factor*”[All Fields] OR “militating factor*”[All Fields] OR “challenge*”[All Fields] OR (“intensive care units, neonatal”[MeSH Terms] OR (“intensive”[All Fields] AND “care”[All Fields] AND “units”[All Fields] AND “neonatal”[All Fields]) OR “neonatal intensive care units”[All Fields] OR (“neonatal”[All Fields] AND “intensive”[All Fields] AND “care”[All Fields] AND “unit”[All Fields]) OR “neonatal intensive care unit”[All Fields]) OR (“intensive care units, neonatal”[MeSH Terms] OR (“intensive”[All Fields] AND “care”[All Fields] AND “units”[All Fields] AND “neonatal”[All Fields]) OR “neonatal intensive care units”[All Fields] OR “nicu”[All Fields]) OR (“quality of health care”[MeSH Terms] OR (“quality”[All Fields] AND “health”[All Fields] AND “care”[All Fields]) OR “quality of health care”[All Fields] OR (“quality”[All Fields] AND “care”[All Fields]) OR “quality care”[All Fields]) OR (“high-acuity”[All Fields] AND “neonate*”[All Fields])) AND (“africa south of the sahara”[MeSH Terms] OR (“africa”[All Fields] AND “south”[All Fields] AND “sahara”[All Fields]) OR “africa south of the sahara”[All Fields] OR (“sub”[All Fields] AND “saharan”[All Fields] AND “africa”[All Fields]) OR “sub saharan africa”[All Fields]) AND 2013/01/01:3000/12/31[Date - Publication]
Number of records retrieved by the search: 83 877
Database used: MEDLINE (Ovid)
Date the search was conducted: 5 November 2023 Time: 10:25:48

MeSH, Medical Subject Headings; NICU, neonatal intensive care unit.