JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Assessing the competencies of health professions educators presents significant challenges, leading to the suggestion of implementing Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) as a potential solution. EPAs refer to the authority granted to individuals to perform tasks with a specified level of trust and competence. The concept of EPAs emerged from the complexities of competency-based medical education and is relatively new in the field of dentistry. Most of the EPAs published focuses on the dental students and there is limited knowledge regarding EPAs specifically for dental educators.

Objective:

Therefore, the rationale for this review is to systematically explore the existing literature on EPAs for dental educators.

Methods:

In this paper, we present a scoping review protocol designed to systematically highlight the elements of EPAs for dental educators from their introduction in 2005 to 2024.This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review guidelines. The literature search will employ a three-step search strategy across four electronic databases (PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, ProQuest). Primary data from relevant studies published between 2005 and 2024 will be analyzed. The processes of literature search, study selection, and evidence charting will involve four independent reviewers. This scoping review aims to elucidate the extent, range and nature of the literature on EPAs for dental educators as assessed in the included resources. Ethics and dissemination: This review serves as a secondary research study, focusing on the existing literature regarding the characteristics of EPAs for dental educators. Therefore, ethical approval is not required. The review will systematically investigate the extent and scope of evidence and information available regarding EPA for dental educators, as well as the key elements of EPAs within higher education settings. The findings will be disseminated through academic journals and conferences aimed at the dental educators globally.

Results:

The extracted data will be presented in tabular form and describe using descriptive statistics. A thematic approach will be employed, utilizing NVivo software for qualitative analysis. The data will be thematically organized according to the elements of the EPAs for dental educators and other related factors. A narrative summary of each element will be provided, and the elements of the EPA for dental educators will be mapped to their associated issues or any relevant emerging theme identified during the review.

Conclusions:

By achieving these outcomes, we hope to establish a baseline data for Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA) tailored for dental educators in the literature, facilitating further development in this area. The outcome of this scoping review will provide a foundational basis for the subsequent larger study aimed at developing a framework of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for dental educators. Clinical Trial: We tried to register via publication however the first attempt of publication failed with BMC Journal