Mapping the terrain of simulation faculty development: protocol for a scoping review

Abstract

This scoping review aims to examine and map the current state of faculty development for healthcare simulation educators. This review will include an exploration of the range and type of faculty development programs designed to enhance simulation-based education (SBE). Simulation has become a staple method for educating health professionals, but no standard approaches exist for training simulation instructors, both for initial training and ongoing professional development. As this education modality continues to expand, there is a need to better understand what interventions and approaches improve the knowledge, skills, abilities and other attributes (KSAOs) for those who are responsible for the design, delivery and evaluation of simulation-based educational sessions. This scoping review will consider empirical research and other relevant published works that address faculty development for simulation educators in health professions education. This will include faculty development interventions, conceptual and theoretical frameworks, recommendations for implementation and other discussions of issues related to faculty development for SBE. These may include experimental, quasi-experimental, observational, qualitative studies, commentaries and perspectives. The following electronic databases will be searched: Medline (Ovid); EMBASE (Ovid); CINAHL (EBSCO); ERIC (EBSCO); PsycInfo (Ovid); and Web of Science without time limits. Reference lists of eligible studies will be back-searched, and Google Scholar and Scopus will be used for forward citation tracking. The findings will be summarized in tabular form and a narrative synthesis, to inform recommendations and areas for future research and practice.