Mapping the Literature on Self-Efficacy Levels Among Medical Students in Higher Education: Protocol for a Scoping Review to Guide Educational Strategies

BACKGROUND: Self-efficacy significantly influences medical students' academic performance. Rooted in Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory, self-efficacy is defined as an individual's subjective judgment of their capability to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances. Unlike general self-esteem, self-efficacy is task- and context-specific. In undergraduate medical education, self-efficacy operates across three interdependent subdomains: (1) academic self-efficacy, encompassing cognitive confidence to master biomedical curricula; (2) clinical skills self-efficacy, reflecting perceived competence in procedural tasks and clinical reasoning; and (3) interpersonal and communication self-efficacy, denoting confidence in empathetic history taking and interprofessional collaboration. These subdomains are presented as a provisional analytical heuristic informed by Bandura's social cognitive theory and prior reviews of self-efficacy in medical education. OBJECTIVE: This scoping review aims to map and analyze the literature on self-efficacy among medical students, identifying factors in its construction and influence on academic performance. The review also aims to catalog the instruments used to measure self-efficacy and examine changes in self-efficacy over time and across stages of medical training. METHODS: Following the frameworks of Arksey and O'Malley, Levac et al, and the Joanna Briggs Institute, this review addresses the question, "What has been published about self-efficacy levels in higher education among medical students?" Comprehensive searches across major electronic databases and gray literature will include studies from January 2019 to September 2026, in English, Portuguese, or Spanish, focusing on undergraduate medical students. Searches will be conducted in the Embase, Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, Virtual Health Library, Web of Science databases and in the education- and psychology-focused databases ERIC and PsycInfo using an expanded search strategy incorporating controlled vocabulary (MeSH [Medical Subject Headings], Emtree, and DeCS [Descritores em Ciências da Saúde]) and free-text synonyms. Screening will be performed using Covidence software (Veritas Health Innovation), with discrepancies resolved by a third senior reviewer. Data will be narratively synthesized through descriptive qualitative mapping and structured tabular summaries, without quantitative statistical pooling. RESULTS: This protocol was registered prospectively on the Open Science Framework before manuscript submission. This research has not received specific funding from any agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. No data have been collected as of September 2026. Each of the 4 review phases is estimated to take 2 months. Results are expected to be published approximately 9 to 12 months following the initiation of database searches. CONCLUSIONS: The resulting evidence map will clarify self-efficacy constructs within medical education, delineate psychometric assessment practices, and identify curricular strategies that foster clinical and academic self-efficacy, providing actionable guidance for medical educators and curriculum planners. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Open Science Framework 10.17605/OSF.IO/RHZDX; https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/RHZDX. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): PRR1-10.2196/95032.