Exploring educational approaches and strategies for developing evidence synthesis skills among pharmacy students: a scoping review protocol.

Abstract

Developing competency for evidence synthesis and translation of evidence into healthcare practice is critical for evidence-based patient care. Pharmacy professionals have a substantial role in evidence generation, synthesis and translation across their professional practice in industry, academia and healthcare. This scoping review aims to explore educational approaches and strategies for building evidence synthesis skills among pharmacy students. This scoping review protocol will follow the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) reporting guidelines and will be conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley framework, supplemented by recommendations from the Joanna Briggs Institute. PubMed, Scopus, Embase, CINAHL Ultimate and Web of Science biomedical databases will be searched for literature from 2010. Two reviewers will screen the literature and extract data independently. Data related to the type of educational approaches being adopted to develop evidence synthesis skills, specific concepts delivered and reported effectiveness and feasibility factors will be extracted. The quantitative data will be compiled and summarised using descriptive statistics and will be presented using percentages, frequency, mean, median and SD. Qualitative evidence will be narratively described.This review will contribute to the development of an educational framework to develop evidence synthesis skills among pharmacy students. This review will also provide key insights for policymakers and regulatory authorities in the educational sector to strengthen existing curriculum and educational frameworks, to promote long-term sustainability of the acquired knowledge and skills that underpin evidence synthesis. The current review does not require ethical approval. The data will be disseminated at national or international conferences and will be published in a peer-reviewed journal. This scoping review has been registered in the Open Science Framework with registration DOI:10.17605/OSF.IO/ZQVGY.