Pre-Service Education and Continuous Professional Development on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting for maternal health professionals working in OECD countries: A Scoping Review Protocol

The aim of this scoping review is to map the available evidence on pre-service education and continuous professional development (CPD) for maternal health professionals providing services to pregnant women with Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in OECD countries. FGM/C is a form of gender-based violence and has become a global phenomenon due to changing patterns in migration flows. Pre-service education curricula and CPD for maternal health professionals need to ensure FGM/C inclusion in order to provide quality services in high-prevalence countries or those serving as home for diaspora communities. Inclusion criteria are studies, training curricula for the education of midwives, doctors or other health professionals providing maternity services, protocols and guidelines on FGM/C training, other online FGM/C training resources from OECD countries. Documents from 2010 onwards will be included. Studies in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and German are eligible for inclusion. The search will be carried out using keywords derived from the Population-Concept-Context (PCC) framework and entered into three databases. A grey literature search will be conducted to identify additional material, policy documents, training resources and PhD theses. The search strategy will be supplemented by focused searching for guidelines and other online resources on FGM/C and CPD activities as well as study curricula. Key personnel from education institutions, professional associations, regulatory bodies and FGM/C experts will be contacted to contribute to the review based on their knowledge and experience. All eligible material will be objectively summarized and transferred into a standardized data extraction form. Findings will be collated by type, search studies or educational curricula to draw overall conclusions about the status of professional training opportunities in OECD countries.