Simulation-Based Education in Competency-Based Health Professional Training: A Scoping Umbrella Review

Summary Statement: Competency-based education (CBE) has become a prevalent framework in health professions education, emphasizing observable outcomes, learner progression, and accountability to patient needs. This scoping umbrella review examined how simulation-based education (SBE) is being used to support and implement CBE across health care professions and disciplines. Across 44 reviews, SBE was used to support knowledge, skills, clinical reasoning, communication, teamwork, and confidence. High-fidelity simulation, virtual reality, standardized patients, and hybrid modalities were commonly used to support deliberate practice and competency-focused learning. Despite this alignment, SBE was frequently implemented as a discrete educational modality rather than as a longitudinally integrated component of competency-based curricula, with inconsistent reporting of competency frameworks, theory-informed design, debriefing approaches, and programmatic assessment strategies. This review synthesizes key findings, gaps, and recommendations and proposes a simulation-grounded CBE framework to guide the intentional integration of SBE within competency-based health care curricula.