Pedagogical strategies in teaching invasive prenatal procedures: a scoping review protocol

Invasive prenatal procedures (IPP) are core competencies in a Maternal-Fetal Medicine (MFM) fellowship training programme yet no standardised competency-based curriculum exists. This scoping review aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the existing educational strategies for amniocentesis, chorionic villus sampling, fetal blood sampling and intrauterine blood transfusion. The objective is also to describe current gaps in the literature regarding evidence-based standards for training and assessment in IPP. Finally, we hope to encourage medical educators who are seeking to develop curricula based on competence by design to foster adaptive expertise through incorporating contextual variations in their teaching thus helping future MFM specialists to handle challenges and respond creatively to changing clinical circumstances and environmental variations.

Using the five-stage framework of Arksey and O'Malley's scoping review methodology as a guide, we will perform a systematic search in the Medline, Embase and Cochrane library databases to identify relevant studies on the educational strategies for IPP. We will include relevant English articles published after 1978. For a comprehensive search, we will explore websites and key journals, and hand-searched reference lists of key studies. Key studies are articles deemed relevant according to the specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. We will chart and sort data using a descriptive and thematic analysis approach.

This review will be the first to examine all forms of pedagogical strategies used in training invasive fetal procedures. As an analysis of pre-existing available data in the literature, this scoping review does not require ethical approval. We anticipate that results will identify research gaps as well as novel ideas for education strategies and assessment. Findings from this study will be disseminated through publication in a peer-reviewed journal, medical education and clinical conferences, and in knowledge translation settings, aiming to improve clinical practice and quality of care.