Instruments measuring meaningful learning in undergraduate healthcare students: a systematic review protocol.

Aim To establish the psychometric properties of instruments to measure learning outcomes in healthcare students. Background Meaningful learning is an active process that promotes a wider and deeper understanding of concepts. It is the result of an interaction between new and previous knowledge. Meaningful learning produces a long-term change in knowledge and skills, which is underpinned by willingness to learn and experience and it is exclusively built by the learner. Design Systematic psychometric review protocol developed from Cochrane Effective Practice and Organization of Care guidance. Method Searches of MEDLINE, CINAHL, SCOPUS, ERIC, Psyc INFO, Cochrane Library, Psychology & Behavioral Sciences Collection Database between 1990-2013. Selected studies will be evaluated with the Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments ( COSMIN) checklist. Funding for the review was confirmed on January 2011 by the Centre of Excellence for Nursing Scholarship in Rome. Results The systematic review will produce a synthesis of the data related to the instruments that measure learning outcomes. These data will help us decide which tools to use and identify the state of knowledge in this field. Conclusions Measuring learning outcomes is very important for the large amount of human and financial resources employed in educating and training health professionals and this requires reliable and valid instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]