Introduction Poor communication between healthcare professionals is one of the main causes of medical errors. Many articles about interprofessional communication (IPC) do not define what communication is and often describe it only as a domain of competencies of interprofessional collaboration.
Three communication paradigms coexist: the transmission model, the transactional model and the constitutive model. These models focus on different aspects of communication and are complementary.
No review about IPC, including all healthcare professionals or all healthcare settings, has been found. Methods and analysis A scoping review protocol was developed to map the research on the topic of IPC, the paradigms of communication used by the researchers, as well as to clarify the definition of this concept.
We will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews. Eligibility criteria follow the Population, Concept, Context framework.
Articles about health professionals, allied health professionals and social workers and students in these fields will be included. Articles evaluating IPC in healthcare, either quantitatively or qualitatively, will be included.
Articles investigating IPC in any type of healthcare setting in any country will be considered. All types of published articles in scientific journals will be included.
The databases that were searched are MEDLINE, CINAHL, APA PsycINFO, EMBASE and Web of Science. In October 2025, 22 798 citations were retrieved, of which 9722 duplicates were deleted.
Two researchers will then independently assess the remaining 13 078 citations against the eligibility criteria. This step is scheduled for completion in May 2026.
They will then chart the data using a standardised data extraction tool. Ethics and dissemination Formal ethical approval is not required, as primary data will not be collected in this study.
Findings of the scoping review will be disseminated through professional networks, conference presentations and publication in a scientific journal. PROSPERO registration details Because the study is a scoping and not a systematic review, registration was not possible on PROSPERO.
The study was registered on Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/dyh2a .
BMJ Open published a clinical update in Research Highlights on 20 Apr 2026. The item focuses on How is interprofessional communication researched and defined in healthcare? A scoping review protocol. Open the detail page to review the full original feed content.