Abstract
BACKGROUND: Clinical Practice Guidelines recommend interprofessional collaboration in palliative care. However, healthcare profession educators lack clear curricular guidance, particularly for undergraduate programs, to adequately train future professionals for effective participation in such teams. OBJECTIVE: This systematic scoping review protocol aims to address this gap by: (i) mapping evidence on key characteristics of teaching palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care to undergraduate healthcare and social care students, and (ii) identifying the nature and effectiveness of educational interventions for improving palliative care education in the undergraduate curriculum. METHODS AND EXPECTED OUTPUTS: The protocol adheres to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocol Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-P-ScR) guidelines, while the proposed systematic scoping review study will be conducted based on methods and steps identified by Arksey and O'Malley and experts in the field. We will conduct systematic searches across five EBSCOhost databases using relevant search terms. Additionally, a limited grey literature search will be conducted on the first 100 results of Google Scholar and Open-Grey. The selection process will follow PRISMA-Extension for Scoping Reviews. Two independent reviewers will screen titles and abstracts for eligibility. Data extraction will be done on standardized forms in duplicate with cross-checking by a third reviewer. Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis approach, combining thematic and directed content analysis, will be employed for analysis. Intervention effectiveness will be narratively summarized based on the TIDieR checklist. Meta-analysis will be considered if applicable and data is homogeneous. DISCUSSION: Palliative care education (PCE) is a crucial element of undergraduate health professions education. This study's findings may aid educators in fostering optimal learning among healthcare students, who can then positively influence community health outcomes. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The protocol was submitted for ethical clearance to the University of KwaZulu-Natal's Biomedical Research Ethics Committee and granted exemption from ethics review (00024289). We will disseminate findings through scientific journal publication and by sharing a summary with relevant institutions and attendees at health promotion and interprofessional education conferences.