Educational strategies for enhancing medical students' competency in laboratory medicine practice: a scoping review

Laboratory medicine supports approximately 70% of clinical decisions, yet its integration into undergraduate medical education remains inadequate, leading to deficiencies in medical students' ability to interpret and apply laboratory results in clinical practice.

This scoping review aimed to systematically identify and describe educational strategies designed to enhance clinical medical students' competency in laboratory medicine practice, and to analyze their instructional characteristics and implementation contexts.

Following the Arksey and O'Malley framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, we searched PubMed, WOS, CNKI, and other databases (2015-2025) for relevant studies in Chinese and English. Two reviewers independently screened and extracted data. Descriptive statistics and inductive qualitative content analysis were used for synthesis.

Eleven studies were included, primarily from China, Iran, the USA, and others. Educational strategies were synthesized into three themes: (1) structured integration with clinical workflows; (2) technology-enhanced interaction and simulation; and (3) collaborative learning and authentic workplace engagement. Strategies were often used in combination, with effectiveness influenced by curricular stage and institutional resources. Existing research predominantly focused on result interpretation, with limited attention to test selection, critical value management, and interprofessional communication.

This review provides a systematic mapping of educational strategies for developing competency in laboratory medicine, highlighting gaps in study design, long-term outcome evaluation, and coverage of key competency domains. The findings provide a preliminary mapping of current educational strategies, highlight significant gaps in study design and competency coverage, and offer directions for future research in this critical area of medical education.