What works for whom, how and why in mental health education for undergraduate health profession students? A realist synthesis protocol. [Protocol]

McCormack, Zoe; Kerr, Aisling; Simpson, Andrew; Keating, Dolores; Strawbridge, Judith

Abstract

It has been shown that mental health education can support positive attitudes of health profession students towards people with mental health challenges, which supports them to provide optimal healthcare to this group. There are many different approaches to designing and delivering mental health education to health profession students. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages, and often mental health education programmes incorporate a multimodal approach in order to reap the benefits of a variety of teaching and learning approaches. The aim of this study is to understand the current landscape of teaching and learning approaches to mental health education for undergraduate health profession students. We will examine the features of successful outcomes for health profession students for: Learning environment. Knowledge development and retention. Confidence. Motivation. Preparedness for professional practice. For this, a realist synthesis has been chosen in order to review the literature. Realist synthesis lends itself to the review of complex interventions such as mental health education for undergraduate health profession curricula because it seeks to uncover the range of different mechanisms and context configurations that produce different outcomes. Health profession education and education practice, in general, is complex. A patient and public involvement (PPI) group is involved throughout this study and includes undergraduate health profession students, and members of the St John of Gods Hospital Consumers and Carers Council who are involved at every stage of the research. This study will engage with a stakeholder group who will support the refining of the programme theory.

Citation

MCCORMACK, Z., KERR, A., SIMPSON, A., KEATING, D. and STRAWBRIDGE, J. 2024. What works for whom, how and why in mental health education for undergraduate health profession students? A realist synthesis protocol. [Protocol]. BMJ open [online], 14(3), article number e078130. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-078130

• Other Type: Protocol
• Acceptance Date: Feb 14, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Mar 11, 2024
• Publication Date: Mar 31, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 21, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 21, 2024
• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-078130
• Keywords: Mental health education; Health profession students; Mental health challenges; Teaching and learning approaches
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2279148
• Additional Information: This article has been published with separate supporting information. This supporting information has been incorporated into a single file on this repository and can be found at the end of the file associated with this output.