What is known about the development of relational competence in the mental health education of healthcare professionals – a scoping review

Abstract

Background: Therapeutic relationships with persons with mental health challenges are central to healthcare professionals’ work in mental healthcare. In the context of mental healthcare, healthcare professionals often work with persons who have challenges related to their emotional lives, which may be particularly challenging in relational work. This places high demands on the relational competence of healthcare professionals. An overview of pedagogical strategies to promote relational competence in mental health education of healthcare professionals is lacking and more knowledge is needed in this field. The aim of this study was to examine the body of knowledge on how the development of relational competence can be promoted and hampered in mental health education of healthcare professionals, as well as to identify knowledge gaps in this field. Methods: A scoping review was conducted with systematic searches in Medline, PsychInfo, Cinahl, Eric, Embase, and British Nursing Index, as well as hand searches in the reference lists of the included studies. Results: Forty scientific studies were included in this review in which qualitative methods (n = 18), quantitative methods (n = 16), and mixed methods (n = 6) were employed. The results show interventions that promote and hamper the development of relational competence in the mental health education of healthcare professionals. Learning interventions were organised into two themes. The first, individual active participation, describes promoting interventions and includes the sub-themes mapping training needs, learning through reflection, learning through active engagement in the classroom, learning in real-life situations, and learning through knowledge of lived experience. The second theme, receiving knowledge passively, describes hampering factors, which includes the sub-theme of learning through an explanatory theoretical approach. Conclusion: Learning interventions focusing on students’ individual active participation seem to promote the development of relational competence. Receiving knowledge passively is found to hinder the development of relational competence.