Menopause education of healthcare professionals: A scoping review protocol

Abstract The reported lack of adequate menopause care is a significant issue, leaving many women feeling isolated and unsupported as they navigate this transition. The increasing mainstream attention on menopause healthcare highlights the need to evaluate whether healthcare professionals are adequately educated and competent to provide effective care for menopausal women. The aim of this scoping review is to ascertain to what extent undergraduate and post registration healthcare professionals are educated regarding menopause throughout their training and subsequent careers, with a view to informing future educational initiatives. This scoping review will be carried out using the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for scoping reviews checklist. It will include all healthcare professionals relevant to the provision of menopause care, including medical doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, and psychologists. The search will use the following databases: CINAHL; MEDLINE; EMBASE; APA PsycINFO; ERIC; and Academic Search Complete. Grey literature will be searched using Google Scholar and Open Grey. An academic librarian has been contacted to assist in the development of the search strategy. Covidence online software will be used to manage the screening and data extraction process. Purposely developed data extraction tables will be created by the reviewers. The data will be synthesised and reported narratively. Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. Funding Statement Yes Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes Data Availability No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study. All relevant data from this study will be made available upon study completion.