Influence of general practice education on medical students’ attitude towards this discipline: a mixed studies scoping review protocol

INTRODUCTION: The shortage of general practitioners in many countries remains a persistent issue and is likely to become more severe in the future. Multiple factors influencing the attitude of medical students towards general practice have been identified. The aim of this scoping review is to describe the scope of the evidence on the influence of teaching general practice in medical school (eg, lectures, seminars, internships) on medical students' attitude towards this discipline and to identify knowledge gaps. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will apply a mixed studies scoping review design. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies exploring the influence of general practice education in medical school (exposure) on the attitudes (outcome) of medical students (population) will be included. The outcome will be any measured or reported change in medical students' attitude towards general practice as a discipline. A systematic search in MEDLINE through PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, the Education Resources Information Centre and PsycInfo, as well as forward and backward citation tracking, will be conducted starting from 2015, published in English or German. Titles, abstracts and full texts will be screened and data will be extracted independently by two reviewers. Results will be tabulated and summarised narratively and interpreted according to the framework of the affective domain. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: By identifying and linking educational formats with levels of the affective domain, this approach may help educators understand how medical training can influence the attitude towards and interest in primary care and improve the development of professional identity formation and general practice focused curricula. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This scoping review does not require ethical approval. The results will be disseminated through publications in peer-reviewed journals and presentations at national and international conferences. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: The protocol of this scoping review has been registered on OSF (DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/UFJCR).