Which educational interventions have been implemented to support clinical competencies among primary healthcare...

Strengthening clinical competence among primary health care (PHC) professionals is essential as they directly influence the quality of care provided to healthcare users. Clinical competence is a multidimensional construct that integrates knowledge, skills, attitudes, and professional judgment. Despite the recognized importance of education for professional competencies, evidence remains limited regarding the effects of educational interventions on clinical competence among PHC, including how these effects are measured and which clinical competencies are developed through such interventions. This scoping review aimed to map educational interventions targeting PHC professionals and to examine how clinical competence has been assessed within these initiatives.

This scoping review followed PRISMA-ScR guidelines. A comprehensive search was conducted in March 2025 in the databases PubMed, LILACS, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, and Scopus, followed by an exploratory search on Google and the websites of recognized public health institutions to identify additional information, such as training programs and reports. Two independent reviewers evaluated the eligible sources and extracted information on the educational interventions using a standardized form developed by the authors.

After screening 3,839 records, 91 information sources were included, of which 30 were peer-reviewed studies reporting evaluated outcomes. Most interventions addressed non-communicable chronic diseases, delivered through self-instructional online learning and classified as short non-degree courses. Among evaluated studies, improvements were predominantly observed in knowledge-based outcomes. Assessment approaches varied widely, with limited use of validated instruments and minimal direct evaluation of clinical performance. Several studies relied on practice-based proxy indicators or patient-level outcomes as indirect measures of competence.

Primary healthcare is a strategic setting for implementing educational interventions to strengthen clinical competence across diverse health conditions. Although most evaluated studies report improvements in knowledge, evidence regarding their impact on multidimensional clinical competence remains limited. Future research should prioritize validated assessment instruments and practice-based evaluation approaches to better capture changes in clinical performance.