The impact of professional education and training strategies, and other enablers and facilitators, on the scope of practice of pharmacy, dental, and optical professionals in GB/the UK: a scoping review of the literature protocol

<p dir="ltr"><b>Objective: </b>The objective of this scoping review of the literature is to explore and map the existing evidence, relating to pharmacy, dental and optical professionals’ education, training and other enablers and facilitators, which impact their scope of practice.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Introduction:</b> Healthcare services in the UK are currently under significant pressure due to staff shortages, financial challenges, recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing demand. Utilising appropriate skill mix and enabling pharmacy, dental and optical professionals to optimise their roles, is crucial to maintaining service provision. This review will explore the extent to which student and registered pharmacy, dental and optical professionals in the UK, are enabled to expand their scope of practice, through education, training and other enablers and facilitators.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Inclusion criteria:</b> The review of the literature will include studies relating to the education and training of pre-registration pharmacy technicians and pharmacy technicians in Great Britain (GB), and student dental technicians, dental technicians, clinical dental technicians, student dispensing opticians, dispensing opticians and contact lens opticians in the United Kingdom (UK). Studies and other literature exploring enablers and facilitators to role development, optimisation, or expansion of scope of practice will be included. Studies and other literature conducted in any academic or professional setting will be considered.</p><p dir="ltr"><b>Methods:</b> MedLine, EMBASE, ERIC, Education Research Complete, PsychINFO, and Scopus will be searched. Grey literature will be sourced from healthcare regulators, professional organisations, statutory education bodies and governments. The search will be limited to English language studies published between 2000 and 2024. Study selection and data extraction will be undertaken by the author (RC) and sampled by a second reviewer. Data analysis will include qualitative content analysis and descriptive statistics.</p><p dir="ltr">The review will focus on student and registered pharmacy technicians, dental technicians, and dispensing opticians in Great Britain (GB) (for pharmacy) and the UK (for dental and optical professions). They will be collectively referred to as “pharmacy, dental and optical professionals” throughout. The review excludes pharmacists, dentists, other dental care professional groups, and optometrists.</p><p><br></p>