Employability in health professional education: a scoping review

BACKGROUND: The concept of employability can help educators understand the variability in the career outcome of graduates. Within the health professional education (HPE) literature, various conceptions of employability are used and implied. This review considers how the concept ‘employability’ is depicted and characterised in HPE literature. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted. The authors searched Medline, Web of Science and Scopus databases for English language literature relevant to employability in HPE. Arksey and O'Malley’s review protocol and the criteria defined in the preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews Checklist (PRISMA-ScR) were used with methodological guidance provided by Levac et al. and Peters et al. with the exception of formal stakeholder consultation. RESULTS: The search resulted in 158 articles, of which 34 articles were included in this review. Charting the included articles revealed that within the set of articles, there is much diversity in study design, geographical setting and health profession. Three conceptions of employability were identified: acquiring a professional job, sustaining employment and thriving in the workforce. CONCLUSION: Conceptions of employability in HPE are largely focused on listing skills and capabilities for entry into employment and sustaining a career. To address gaps in research, structural contributions to employability and institutional strategies to promote conditions for thriving in disruption should be explored.