Characteristics of Student-Led Clinics in the Allied Health Professions: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Background: Student-led clinics can provide students from allied health professions with the opportunity to gain valuableplacement experience as an integral component of their preregistration program, enabling them to develop their competencies,professional skills, and administrative and leadership skills. Student-led clinics have the capacity to help meet the demand forappropriate practice-based learning opportunities, as there is an expectation that all allied health professions students should havehigh-quality learning experiences, ensuring the future workforce is fit for purpose. An overview of existing student-led clinicswill increase our understanding of key characteristics, assisting education providers who may be considering the developmentof their own clinics. This will include key factors to ensure that this model of practice-based learning meets the needs of serviceusers, students, and education providers.Objective: This scoping review aims to increase our understanding of the characteristics of student-led clinics by answeringthe questions (1) what student-led clinics exist in the allied health professions, and (2) what are their characteristics?Methods: This scoping review has been developed in conjunction with Joanna Briggs Institute methodology. We will considerstudies and publications that include student-led clinics as an integral part of the preregistration curriculum for allied healthprofessions students as defined by the Health and Care Professions Council. An extensive search of electronic databases will beconducted, including PubMed, MEDLINE, and CINAHL, among others. Search strategies, including the identified keywordsand index terms, will be modified for each included database used. Reference lists of all included evidence will be screened foradditional relevant studies. Studies published in English with no date limitations will be included. Relevant sources will beimported into Covidence for screening conducted by 2 reviewers (SR and KB). Data extraction will be conducted by 2 reviewersusing a piloted data extraction tool, and data will be charted and tabulated using the Template for Intervention Description andReplication (TIDieR) checklist. Data will be presented with a narrative summary and illustrated by graphs and figures. Thescoping review will be reported in conjunction with the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews andMeta-analyses extension for scoping reviews) and the STORIES (Structured Approach to the Reporting In health care educationof Evidence Synthesis) statement for health care education evidence synthesis.Results: An initial limited search was conducted in February 2024. The study will be conducted in 2025. Publication of theresults is expected in late 2025.Conclusions: This scoping review will provide key information regarding the characteristics of student-led clinics and will beof interest to preregistration education programs within the allied health professions who have an interest in exploring opportunitiesto address placement capacity issues.