Objective: This scoping review aims to map and examine the extent and type of available evidence on health professionals' education accreditation within Africa.
Introduction: The demand for health professionals is unprecedentedly high globally. One response to this challenge has been expanding training through more liberal education policies, facilitating private sector participation in education service provision. Some evidence suggests that this is a double-edged sword, increasing quantity but compromising the quality of health professionals produced. Regulation can provide a framework to assure and continuously improve quality, with such regulation in place in 79% of World Health Organization African countries. However, it is unclear how much and what evidence has been generated on how accreditation happens, where it is concentrated, and the prevailing evidence gaps within this region; therefore, we propose to conduct a scoping review.
Inclusion criteria: This review will include articles and dissertations focusing on the accreditation of health professionals' education in Africa. All methodological approaches and designs will be included. Conference abstracts and protocols will be excluded.
Methods: This review will be carried out according to the JBI scoping review methodology. We conducted an initial search of CINAHL and MEDLINE to identify relevant articles. This informed our selection of keywords, along with index terms, to create a comprehensive search strategy for CINAHL (EBSCOhost), MEDLINE (Ovid), Global Health (Ovid), ERIC (EBSCOhost), Web of Science Core Collection, Embase, and Scopus. Sources included will be limited to those published starting from 2000 onwards. Data will be presented using tables and charts, accompanied by a narrative summary.
Detail of this review project can be found in open science framework: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/W5G7T.
Objective: The objectives of this review are to identify barriers/facilitators to designing, maintaining, and utilizing rare disease patient registries (RDPRs); determine whether and how these differ among patient partners, other knowledge users (KUs), and researchers; and chart definitions of rare diseases and RDPRs.
Introduction: RDPRs are vital to improving the understanding of the natural histories and predictors of outcomes for rare diseases, assessing interventions, and identifying potential participants for clinical trials. Currently, however, the functionality of RDPRs is not fully optimized. To improve the quality and functionality of RDPRs, it is important to understand the barriers and/or facilitators involved in their design, maintenance, and utilization; how these might differ among patient partners, other KUs, and researchers; and to delineate the range of definitions for rare diseases and RDPRs.
Inclusion criteria: Evidence of any study design or format (including empirical studies, books, manuals, commentaries, editorials, guidance documents, conference abstracts, review documents, and gray literature) referencing barriers/facilitators for designing, maintaining, or utilizing RDPRs will be considered for inclusion.
Methods: The review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. We will search health science databases, including the Cochrane Library, Embase, MEDLINE, the JBI EBP Database, and PsycINFO, from inception onwards, as well as gray literature using the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) Grey Matters guidance. Two independent reviewers will screen titles and abstracts and full-text documents, as well as abstract data. Disagreements will be resolved through discussion or with a third reviewer. Evidence will be synthesized descriptively and reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRIMSA-ScR).
Review registration: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/mvf9r.
Objective: This scoping review will describe educational programming that supports undergraduate student nurses' transition-to-practice and/or enhances practice readiness.
Introduction: The period of transition from nursing student to professional nurse is fraught with challenges stemming from the evolving role and the increasing demands of independent practice. While transition-to-practice programming exists for the new graduate nurse, there is less focus on preparing the student in their final year of education. A scoping review will identify educational programming delivered to nursing students approaching graduation that facilitate transition-to-practice success and/or improve practice readiness.
Inclusion criteria: This review will consider literature describing educational programming that supports transition-to-practice success and/or practice readiness and that demonstrates evidence of evaluation. Studies that involve primarily pre-licensure, undergraduate, or baccalaureate nursing students will be included. Reports of primary studies, reviews, dissertations and theses, conference proceedings, and nursing trade publications that describe quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods will be included.
Methods: The proposed review will adhere to the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. A comprehensive search will be conducted in CINAHL (EBSCOhost), MEDLINE (Ovid), Healthstar (Ovid), and Nursing and Allied Health (ProQuest) using a search strategy developed in consultation with an expert university librarian. Two independent reviewers will screen articles by title and abstract and assess the full text of each selected citation against inclusion criteria. Quantitative methods (descriptive statistics) and basic qualitative content analysis will be used to analyze the data, and results will be reported in narrative and graphic formats.
Review registration: Open Science Framework osf.io/2vsbq.
Objective: The objective of this review is to generate a national picture of the scope of nursing work and models of service delivery in Australian primary and secondary schools.
Introduction: Schools are an important setting for providing health services to school-aged children and youth. Early intervention with identified health needs has the potential to improve health and educational outcomes across the life course. Additionally, many children and young people present with health issues requiring sophisticated management at school. Nurses have worked in Australian schools for more than a century, but there is a lack of clarity about the scope of nursing work and models of service delivery in Australian schools.
Inclusion criteria: The review will include papers describing the work of registered or enrolled nurses in primary and secondary Australian schools providing education to children aged 3-18 years, in urban, regional, and remote areas of all states and territories. Peer-reviewed, non-peer-reviewed, and gray literature, not limited by publication date or language, will be included.
Methods: The review will be conducted in accordance with the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Databases to be searched will include CINAHL, MEDLINE, PsycINFO (all via EBSCOhost), together with ERIC, Informit, and Google. Two authors will independently screen titles and abstracts, and extract data from included papers. Data will be analyzed by state/territory and by education sector (government/non-government) to generate a national picture. The findings will be reported in a narrative synthesis aligned with the review questions.
Review registration: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/6yqrm.
Background: Healthy eating habits, which start with food introduction, can influence children's growth and development. Therefore, the educational actions carried out at school for children who are beginning to eat, involving families and school staff who attend daycare centers, can serve as strategies to improve complementary feeding practices.
Objective: This review will analyze the effectiveness of early childhood education interventions to improve complementary feeding practices in children aged 4 to 36 months.
Inclusion criteria: The review will consider randomized clinical trials, cluster-randomized clinical trials, and controlled clinical trials that evaluate the effectiveness of early childhood education interventions involving children aged 4 to 36 months, their families, or school staff to improve complementary feeding. In their absence, observational cohort, case-control, and cross-sectional studies may be considered.
Methods: This review will be conducted in line with the JBI methodology for systematic reviews of effectiveness. The search for relevant studies will be conducted in PubMed, Embase (Ovid), BIREME, Scopus, the Cochrane Library (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials CENTRAL and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), and the ProQuest Databases (ProQuest Central). No date or language limitation will be applied. Two independent reviewers will select studies by screening titles, abstracts, and keywords against the inclusion criteria. This will be followed by full-text screening. Two independent reviewers will then conduct the study method quality evaluation and data extraction. GRADEpro will be used to assess the certainty in the findings, which will be reported in a systematic review, and, if possible, grouped in a meta-analysis.
Review registration number: PROSPERO CRD42022384704.
Objective: The objective of this scoping review is to assess the treatment outcomes following maxillofacial rehabilitation and to identify the tools used to evaluate those outcomes.
Introduction: Maxillofacial defects caused due to tumor, trauma, or any pathology affects the patient physically, mentally, and psychologically. Various methodologies and strategies are used for jaw reconstruction and oral rehabilitation to help the patient regain the functions and quality of life that were lost due to the defect. The evaluation of these treatment outcomes is imperative to assess the success of rehabilitation.
Inclusion criteria: The review will include patients with any maxillofacial defect caused by a developmental anomaly, trauma, or tumor. The patients must have undergone any type of reconstruction and/or rehabilitation and can be from any age group. All treatment outcomes of maxillofacial rehabilitation will be considered. Information from primary and secondary sources and from diverse geographical settings will be included.
Methods: This review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Databases to be searched will include PubMed (Ovid), Scopus, PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, and Google Scholar (first 10 pages of the search). Two independent reviewers will screen the titles and abstracts and extract data from selected studies. Data will be presented in tabular format, accompanied by a narrative summary.
Review registration: Open Science Framework https://osf.io/dp8wc.
Objective: The proposed scoping review aims to explore the literature on the occupational therapy (OT) scope of practice for patients with ankylosing spondylitis, including assessment methods and intervention approaches used by OT practitioners, areas of impairment addressed, and practice settings where OT practitioners provide services.
Introduction: Ankylosing spondylitis is a type of spondyloarthritis primarily involving inflammation of the spine. Studies have begun to examine the role of OT in addressing pain, function, and disability among patients with ankylosing spondylitis. Given the increased recognition of OT services for this population, a comprehensive understanding of the assessment methods and intervention approaches used by OT practitioners when working with ankylosing spondylitis would benefit clinicians, providers, and patients and support future research efforts.
Inclusion criteria: The review will consider studies that include participants of any age diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis and any form of OT assessment and intervention. All relevant published and unpublished studies will be considered, without date or language limitations, including all primary studies, gray literature, textual evidence papers, and clinical guidelines.
Methods: The review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews. Searches will be conducted in MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Scopus, PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, SportDiscus (EBSCOhost), OTDBase, OTSeeker, and Google Scholar. Two reviewers will independently extract data from selected papers using a standardized tool modified for the review. The results will be presented using frequency tables and will be accompanied by a narrative summary.
Review registration: Open Science Framework https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/VPY56.