Learning Styles of Medical Students, Surgical Residents, Medical Staff, and General Surgery Teachers When Learning Surgery: Protocol for a Scoping Review

Learning styles are biological and developmental configurations of personal characteristics that make the same teaching method effective for some and ineffective for others. Studies support a relationship between learning style and career choices in medicine, resulting in learning style patterns being observed in different residency programs, including in general surgery, from medical school to the last stages of training. The methodologies, populations, and contexts of the few studies pertinent to the matter are very different from one another, and a scoping review on this theme will enhance and organize what is already known. The goal of this study is to identify and map out data from studies on the learning styles of medical students, surgical residents, medical staff, and surgical teachers. The review will consider studies on the learning styles of medical students in a clinical cycle or internship, surgical residents with no restriction on year of residency, medical staff in general surgery, or general surgery's medical faculty. Primary studies published in English, with no specific time frame, will be considered. The search will be carried out in four databases, and reference lists will be searched for additional studies. Duplicates will be removed, and two independent reviewers will screen the titles, abstracts, and full texts of the selected studies. Data collection will be performed using a tool developed by the researchers. A results summary will be presented with figures, narratives, and tables. A quantitative and qualitative analysis will be carried out and further results will be shared. The search was funded on September 25, 2023. Data collection was performed in the two following months. Of the 213 articles found, 135 were excluded due to duplication. The remaining 78 articles will have their titles and abstracts analyzed by three of the researchers independently to select those that meet the eligibility criteria. This data is expected to be published in the first semester of 2025. Conducting a scoping review is the best way to map what is known about a subject. Understanding how students, residents, staff, and even teachers prefer to learn surgery is key to staying up to date and knowing how to best educate those pursuing a surgical career. Open Science Framework 75ku4; https://osf.io/75ku4. DERR1-10.2196/57229.