Team-Based Depression Care in Primary Care: The Role of Nurse Practitioners

To investigate evidence of nurse practitioner (NP)-led, NP-delivered depression care to primary care patients and make recommendations based on that evidence. PubMed, ProQuest, CINAHL, Scopus, Embase, and Web of Science were searched in January 2022, and reference lists of included studies were hand searched in April 2022. Included studies (n = 10) involved team-based primary care and 3 team categories emerged: family (F)NP and psychiatric mental health (PMH)NP-led teams (n = 3), PMHNP-led teams (n = 5), and FNP-led teams (n = 2). There was an association between NP-led, NP-delivered care and improved depressive symptomatology in primary care patients. •Little evidence exists on nurse practitioner (NP)-led, NP-delivered, high-quality depression primary care.•This evidence gap conflicts with the growing primary care NP workforce.•Within team-based primary care research, the NP role is varied and becoming more visible.•This review identified NPs as leaders of primary care teams.•More research is needed to capture and credit the contributions of NPs.