Clinical teaching practices in maternal mental health nursing. An integrated review

Abstract Background Clinical teaching of nursing and midwifery is critical for acquiring necessary competencies and developing confidence in students to make them ready for practice. Such competencies are especially important in midwifery practice in Malawi as there is a significant increase in maternal mental health problems in the country. Most cases are reported in the primary healthcare level maternity units where qualified nurse-midwives practise. However, reports show that maternal mental health has not been given adequate consideration and there is a huge service gap among nursing and midwifery personnel globally and in Malawi. This integrative review examined the literature on clinical teaching practices in maternal mental health to inform nursing and midwifery educators on the competencies taught in nursing colleges to improve the quality, quantity, and relevance of nursing and midwifery education Method PubMed, MEDLINE, Research4life, HINARI, Google scholar, and EBSCOhost were searched using clinical teaching, clinical practices, perinatal mental health, maternal mental health, clinical skills, and clinical education as keywords. Published works from 2014 to 2022 were reviewed. Results Six themes emerged; core curriculum, regulation of professional standards, clinical teaching strategies, a collaboration between educators and staff, capacity building, and availability of resources. Conclusion Nursing and midwifery training institutions should review their curriculum to maximize student learning opportunities in maternal mental health practice by creating more clinical-based learning opportunities that meet the students’ needs and those of the public.