Educating nursing students in evidence-based practice: a scoping review protocol of undergraduate nursing education

This research project comprises a scoping review conducted as an integral component of a doctoral programme aimed at the development and subsequent validation of an educational intervention in evidence-based practice (EBP) for undergraduate nursing students. The review is designed to systematically map and synthesise the existing body of evidence on how EBP is taught, structured, and evaluated within undergraduate nursing education across diverse institutional and geographical contexts. Despite the widespread recognition of EBP as a core competency in nursing education, the literature indicates substantial variability in how EBP is conceptualised and operationalised at the undergraduate level. Differences are reported in curricular integration (stand-alone courses versus transversal approaches), timing within the programme, allocated teaching hours, pedagogical strategies, learning activities, assessment methods, and indicators used to evaluate student outcomes. Moreover, existing reviews often focus on specific educational methods, isolated outcomes, or postgraduate and continuing education contexts, limiting their applicability to the design of comprehensive undergraduate interventions. To address this gap, this scoping review follows the methodological guidance of the Joanna Briggs Institute and aims to provide a comprehensive, structured, and transparent mapping of the evidence related to the teaching of EBP in undergraduate nursing education. The review is guided by a Population–Concept–Context (PCC) framework and addresses both a broad primary research question and a set of focused secondary questions that explore curricular, pedagogical, evaluative, and outcome-related dimensions of EBP education. The review includes a wide range of evidence sources, encompassing quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods studies, educational case studies, descriptive and exploratory research, relevant literature reviews, and institutional or curricular documents identified through database searching and grey literature strategies. No restrictions are applied regarding publication language or time period, allowing for a comprehensive examination of the evolution and diversity of educational approaches. Data extraction is structured around domains explicitly aligned with the requirements for designing and validating an educational intervention, including learning objectives and competencies, curricular organisation, teaching methodologies, learning activities, support materials, assessment strategies, and reported outcomes. The results will be synthesised using descriptive tables and narrative analysis, with explicit alignment between the mapped evidence and the components of the proposed intervention. The expected outcome of this project is a robust empirical and conceptual foundation to inform the design, implementation, and validation of a structured educational intervention in EBP tailored to undergraduate nursing students. By identifying prevailing practices, gaps, and inconsistencies in the literature, this scoping review will support evidence-informed curricular decision-making and contribute to advancing pedagogical practice and research in nursing education.