Positive mental health of undergraduate nursing students: scoping review

Abstract

Abstract Objective: Aimed to map the constructs used in articles to discuss the mental health of undergraduate nursing students in a positive perspective. Methods: A scoping review was carried out with a search in the electronic databases: Scopus, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, in April 2020, which allowed retrieval of 286 articles. Data selection and extraction was performed in a double check by the group investigators and were assessed using the continuous data comparison technique. Results: We selected 53 articles that allowed detecting a set of 13 constructs associated with positive mental health that are continuously investigated by this audience. Conclusion: It was found that the mental health of undergraduate nursing students is a supportive set of characteristics conditioned to the inter-retroactive circuit, in which each component retroacts on each part of a set of strengths, fostering a dynamic state of internal balance.

Keywords

• Mental health
• Nursing education
• Positive psychology