Consumer involvement in university education programs in the nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions: a systematic scoping review.

Background: Incorporating consumers' voices in tertiary education curricula is an ongoing initiative of educators of health professions in order to facilitate students' readiness for consumer-based practice and to meet accreditation standards. Consequently, educators within these professions use a range of different strategies to involve, recruit and retain consumers. To date, no study has attempted to consolidate the different strategies used by nursing, midwifery and allied health educators to involve, recruit and retain consumers. Consolidating these strategies will lead to a sharing of ideas, which would be of benefit to educators looking for ways to involve consumers in their programs.
Objectives: This scoping review aimed to identify how consumers are involved, recruited and retained in nursing, midwifery and allied health curricula, as reported within research from these professions.
Design: The scoping review was carried out and reported according to the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews.
Data Sources: Eight electronic databases were searched on 8 ^th January 2019 for English, peer-reviewed primary literature without limiting publication date. The databases were: Cochrane Library, Embase, Emcare, ERIC: Educational Resources Information Center database, Joanna Briggs Institute EBP database, Medline, Scopus, and Web of Science.
Review Methods: The screening of studies was based on selection criteria and involved a two-stage process conducted by two independent reviewers. Once the studies were identified, two reviewers were involved in the charting process of each study. A form was developed to extract information regarding types of consumer involvement and strategies to recruit and retain consumers. Key concepts were then identified across the charted data and categorised and synthesised based on common characteristics or keywords.
Results: From 2334 studies, a total of 58 articles were included. Four main areas for consumer involvement types and eight strategies for recruitment and retention were identified and mapped across the studies.
Conclusion: The collated findings allow idea sharing among educators from these professions on the various types of consumer involvement, recruitment and retention strategies. Enriching tertiary education programs with consumer input enhances student learning and assists these professions to meet accreditation standards.
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