Health and social care professionals' experience of psychological safety within their occupational setting: a thematic synthesis scoping review protocol

Psychological safety (PS) in the workplace plays an essential role in helping health and social care professionals (HSCPs) function in interpersonally challenging and high stress work environments. While much of the research on PS, to date, has focused on teams, little work has sought to synthesis what is understood to be important to HSCPs’ in terms of their lived experiences of PS across diverse health and/or social care settings. A protocol for a scoping review qualitatively synthesising primary research literature exploring barriers and enablers of PS as experienced by HSCPs was developed. This protocol outlines the planned procedures for a thematic synthesis scoping review. A systematic search of MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase, CINAHL, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane library will be conducted, and the search results will be imported to Covidence where title and abstract screenings, full text screenings, and data extraction will occur. The scoping review will search databases for the timeframe of March 2004 to present. The scoping review will thematically synthesise qualitative data from primary research. The results of the scoping review will be used to examine key relationships and findings regarding enabling factors that help facilitate experiences of PS among HSCPs in the workplace as well as barriers to feeling PS. The findings will inform future research, protocols and interventions aimed at improving PS at the individual, team and organisational level across diverse health and social care settings.