Educational outcomes of emerging teaching methods in undergraduate nursing education: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol

Introduction Undergraduate nursing education is essential in preparing competent and compassionate healthcare professionals capable of addressing the complex challenges in today’s healthcare landscape. This protocol proposes a systematic review of the educational outcomes of virtual/augmented reality, flipped classrooms, team-based learning and gamification compared with traditional or didactic methods in undergraduate nursing education. Methods and analysis A systematic review protocol based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Protocol guidelines will be conducted. Experimental and observational studies published from 2014 through 2024 will be identified by searching the electronic databases PubMed, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science and CINAHL that compare emerging with traditional or didactic teaching methods among undergraduate nursing students. Two reviewers will independently assess titles and abstracts to identify relevant studies based on eligibility criteria. Two additional reviewers will extract data from full-text articles that meet these criteria, evaluate the risk of bias and assess the quality of the selected studies. The meta-analysis will include effect size, heterogeneity, subgroup analyses and publication bias tests. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval is not required. The publication will be in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences. PROSPERO registration number CRD42024618288.