Nursing Roles, Competencies and Models of Care in Prehabilitation for Adults with Cancer: A Scoping Review

Prehabilitation, the enhancement of physical, nutritional and psychological capacity in the interval between cancer diagnosis and the start of treatment, has accumulated a substantial effectiveness literature. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses published between 2024 and 2026 indicate that multimodal and unimodal prehabilitation reduces postoperative complications and improves functional capacity, particularly in colorectal and other gastrointestinal surgery, while an international Delphi exercise has prioritised the questions that remain unresolved, including who benefits most, optimal programme composition, cost-effectiveness, adherence and models of delivery. What the literature has not yet examined systematically is the professional workforce through which prehabilitation is delivered. Nurses screen and assess patients at diagnosis, deliver and coordinate interventions, provide education and behavioural support, monitor adherence and lead service development, yet no review has mapped the roles nurses occupy in prehabilitation, the competencies and educational preparation those roles require, or the models of care through which nursing input is organised. The closest available syntheses concern nursing roles in cancer rehabilitation generally (2022) and nurse-led clinics in oncology (2020), neither specific to the prehabilitation window, while recent professional commentary signals rising strategic interest in nursing leadership of prehabilitation without an underpinning evidence base. Because the question concerns the extent, range and nature of evidence rather than the pooled effect of an intervention, a scoping review is the appropriate design. A recognised risk for this topic is that primary studies frequently under-report who delivers interventions. This protocol treats that risk as an object of inquiry: the review will chart the completeness of reporting of the deliverer of prehabilitation (informed by the TIDieR checklist item "who provided"), such that the invisibility of nursing in prehabilitation reporting, if confirmed, becomes a finding with implications for reporting standards and workforce recognition.