Service user involvement in pre-registration mental health nurse education classroom settings: a review of the literature

Accessible summary Service user involvement is an important part of pre-registration nursing programmes, as it can give students the opportunity to learn from users about their experiences of health and illness, but so far there have been limited studies in this area. This literature review provides an opportunity to explore how service user involvement in classroom settings can impact on student learning, and describes methods of best practice. Further research is needed to understand the influence of service user involvement on student nurses' clinical practice. Abstract Service user involvement in pre-registration nurse education is now a requirement, yet little is known about how students engage with users in the classroom, how such initiatives are being evaluated, how service users are prepared themselves to teach students, or the potential influence on clinical practice. The aim of this literature review was to bring together published articles on service user involvement in classroom settings in pre-registration mental health nurse education programmes, including their evaluations. A comprehensive review of the literature was carried out via computer search engines and the Internet, as well as a hand search of pertinent journals and references. This produced eight papers that fitted the inclusion criteria, comprising four empirical studies and four review articles, which were then reviewed using a seven-item checklist. The articles revealed a range of teaching and learning strategies had been employed, ranging from exposure to users' personal stories, to students being required to demonstrate awareness of user perspectives in case study presentations, with others involving eLearning and assessment skills initiatives. This review concludes that further longitudinal research is needed to establish the influence of user involvement in the classroom over time.