Mindfulness for undergraduate health and social care professional students: Findings from a qualitative scoping...

With many health and social care schools offering mindfulness training (MT) there is a need for deeper understanding about pedagogical issues. Despite encouraging findings showing relationships between MT and student stress reduction, there is little qualitative synthesis of the literature about best principles for teaching and learning.

We report on a qualitative scoping review using the stages of Arksey and O'Malley's framework. The search identified papers from MEDLINE, PsychINFO, CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) and SCOPUS over 15 years. The included papers were synthesised using the 3P model of teaching and learning to explore current MT for presage (teaching set-up), process (teaching delivery) and product (outcomes) factors.

A total of 16 articles were included in the review. There was a lack of consensus on definition of MT, facilitator training and the intervention used. The majority of studies involved small self-selected, mainly female cohorts. For the set-up (presage factors), the majority of curricula included MT for stress management and well-being, delivered in the early years. Providing appropriate facilitators was a concern, whereas process factors revealed enormous variability in delivery. Few studies had formal assessment, although many had outcome evaluation measures (product factors).

The qualitative review has highlighted additional benefits from MT aside from stress reduction; most noticeably, student self-awareness, peer cohesion and group support, ability to attend to patients, and student insights into health and social education culture. Seeking presage, process and product factors has illuminated variability in how MT is being adapted within health and social care curricula. This review highlights the next steps and recommendations for the future.