A total of 16,714 eligible studies were identified from the databases searched (Fig. 1). After duplicate removal and title screening, 16, 534 articles were removed because they did not meet our inclusion criteria and 180 studies were retained. Thereafter, abstract screening was conducted by two independent researchers of which a total of 147 studies were excluded, thus reducing the articles eligible for full-article screening to 33 articles. After the full-article screening, four studies were excluded for the following reasons: two studies reported on general healthcare workers [35, 36], one study was a poster and not an article [37], and one study did not report on the 12-month prevalence of MSD and the risk factors [38]. In the end, a total of 29 articles were finally included for data extraction in the review as they met our inclusion criteria. The Preferred Report Items for Systematic and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) flow chart for the screening and selection of studies in this review is shown in Fig. 1:

The Preferred Report Items for Systematic and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) flow chart for the selection and screening of studies in this study is shown in Fig. 1.

PRISMA chart showing literature search and selection of studies

A total of 29 studies that were published between 2010 and 2022 were found to be eligible for inclusion in our scoping review. Furthermore, all the included studies were conducted in different hospital settings, and the population was drawn from male and female nurses. In this study, 28% (8/29) of the included studies were conducted in Ethiopia [14, 39,40,41,42,43,44,45], 24% (7/29) in Nigeria [6, 11, 24, 46,47,48,49], 10.3% (3/29) in Kenya [13, 15, 50], 10.3% (3/29) in South Africa [31, 51, 52], 6.9% (2/29) in Ghana [3, 16], 6.9% (2/29) in Uganda [53, 54], and one each for the following countries: 3.4% (1/29) in Botswana [28], 3.4% (1/29) Zimbabwe [29], 3.4% (1/29) Zambia [30], and 3.4% (1/29) Sudan [17]. A total number of 6343 study participants were reported in the included studies, with over half (3527) of them being females. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 65 years old. In addition, the majority of the participants in the included studies were recorded in a study conducted in Uganda [54] comprising of 433 nurse. All the 29 included studies were cross-sectional surveys. The countries which were reported in the included studies are presented in Fig. 2

Distribution of the countries represented in the included studies (N = 29)

Of the 29 included studies, 18 of them as presented in Fig. 3 showed evidence on the prevalence of MSD among nurses [3, 6, 11, 13, 14, 16, 28,29,30,31, 39, 41, 45,46,47, 51, 53, 54]. In addition, all the included studies described the associated risk factors of MSD and recommended some strategies that can be used to reduce the prevalence of MSD. However, all the included studies did not report any incidence, mortality, and economic costs of MSD among nurses. Furthermore, 23 of the included studies in this review reported evidence on LBP among nurses [3, 6, 13,14,15,16,17, 24, 28,29,30,31, 39, 40, 42,43,44, 46,47,48,49, 52, 53] as presented in Fig. 4.

The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders from included studies (N = 18)

The prevalence of low back pain from included studies (N = 23)

The following main themes emerged from the included studies: prevalence of MSD, lower back pain, associated risk factors of MSD among nurses. We would like to highlight that although interventional strategies for controlling MSD among nurses were not in line with our review and aim of this review, it emerged as one of the themes, and given the scarcity of data on the cost of MSD, we decided to present data relating to interventions.

Among the 29 included studies, 18 of them reported evidence about the 12-month prevalence of MSD among nurses. The prevalence of MSD ranged from as low as 57.1% up to 95.7%. The lowest prevalence of MSD was recorded in a study done in Ethiopia [14], while the highest prevalence of MSD was reported in a study conducted in Zimbabwe [29], respectively. Majority of the studies on prevalence of MSD were conducted in Ethiopia, thus four of them recording 57.1% [14], 60.8% [39], 63.6% [41], and 72.9% [45], and Nigeria with four as well, thus 60% [46], 78% [6], 60% [47], and 84.5% [6, 11, 46, 47], respectively, followed by South Africa with recordings of 84% and 61% [31, 51], respectively, Ghana two studies with 69.4% and 94% [3, 16], two studies as well in Uganda 75% [53], 80.8% [54], and only one of each in Botswana 90.9% [28], Zambia 68.9% [30], Zimbabwe 95.7% [29], and Kenya 74.2% [13]. From this review, we have noted that the prevalence rates of MSD in nurses vary according to studies but are generally high as all the studies recorded MSD prevalence rate was above 50%.

Evidence from this scoping review on the prevalence of MSD further generated a sub-theme on the prevalence of the most affected anatomical sites of MSD. Findings from the included studies revealed different body sites that are commonly reported by nurses as affected by MSD; in this review, LBP, ankle/feet, shoulders, neck, knees, upper back, and elbows emerged. Among all these anatomical sites, LBP emerged to be the most reported MSD by nurses and interventional strategies for controlling MSD among nurses.

From our findings, the outcome of our review showed that the burden of LBP emerged to be the most prevalent MSD among the nurses. Twenty-three of the included studies in this review reported evidence on LBP among nurses [3, 6, 13,14,15,16,17, 24, 28,29,30,31, 39, 40, 42,43,44, 46,47,