Continuing Professional Development Practices and Evaluation in Neurosurgery: A Scoping Review

This scoping review, titled “Continuing Professional Development Practices and Evaluation in Neurosurgery: A Scoping Review”, will examine how continuing professional development (CPD) supports the maintenance and development of neurosurgical competence throughout a surgeon’s career. Neurosurgical practice requires ongoing learning in response to developments in surgical techniques, technologies and clinical care. CPD encompasses formal education and practice-based learning, including courses, workshops, simulation, cadaveric training, digital learning, mentoring, coaching, audit and feedback, peer review and quality-improvement activities. The purpose of this review is to map reported CPD practices in neurosurgery and examine the professional needs and competencies they address, the populations and settings in which they are delivered, the methods used to evaluate them and the outcomes reported. The primary research question is: “What is known about continuing professional development practices in neurosurgery, the competencies they address and the approaches used to evaluate them?” Particular attention will be given to technical, clinical, non-technical and professional competencies, and to whether evaluations extend beyond participation, satisfaction and short-term knowledge acquisition to demonstrated competence, professional performance, changes in clinical practice, patient safety or clinical outcomes. The review will also examine factors influencing access, participation, implementation and sustainability. Eligible populations will include consultant, attending and independently practising neurosurgeons, alongside neurosurgical residents, trainees and fellows participating in activities that occur beyond, or alongside, the routine requirements of formal specialist training and are intended to update, extend or maintain competence. Undergraduate education and the routine delivery of specialist training curricula will be excluded. Multidisciplinary studies will be eligible where neurosurgical participants or findings can be identified separately. The review will consider all geographical settings and neurosurgical subspecialties. The review will follow Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and will be reported using the PRISMA extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Electronic database searches will be supplemented by reference-list screening and, where appropriate, forward citation searching. English-language full-text sources will be considered without a publication-date restriction. Eligible evidence will include quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies, programme evaluations, implementation studies, observational studies and surveys. Relevant professional guidance, competency frameworks and consensus statements will be mapped separately from empirical evaluations. Two reviewers will independently screen titles and abstracts and subsequently assess full texts against predefined eligibility criteria, resolving disagreements through discussion and consensus. Data will be charted using a piloted extraction form covering study characteristics, participants and career stage, professional needs, competencies addressed, educational approaches, delivery settings, assessment methods, reported outcomes and implementation factors. Findings will be presented through structured evidence tables, descriptive summaries, frequency mapping and narrative synthesis, with comparisons across career stages, subspecialties, geographical settings and educational contexts where feasible. The expected outcome is a structured evidence map linking neurosurgical CPD practices with their intended competencies, evaluation approaches and reported outcomes. The review will identify where evidence is concentrated, which populations and professional needs are under-represented, and where evaluation of competence, clinical practice or patient outcomes remains limited. These findings are intended to inform priorities for future research and the development, delivery and evaluation of neurosurgical CPD programmes.