The therapeutic relationship at the heart of nursing care: A participatory action research in acute mental health units

To explore the process of change within the clinical practice of nurses in mental health inpatient units in the context of a participatory process to improve the nurse-patient therapeutic relationship.Participatory Action Research.Ninety-six nurses from 18 mental health units participated. Data were collected through focus groups and reflective diaries between March 2018 and January 2020. Data were analysed using inductive content analysis. The COREQ guidelines were used.The research process was carried out through two cycles of four stages each in which the nurses were able to identify the facilitating and limiting elements of their practice in relation to the therapeutic relationship. They then proposed two consensual improvement strategies for all the units, which they called reserved therapeutic space and postincident analysis. Finally, they implemented and evaluated the two strategies for change.This study has shown that, despite the different cultural and structural realities of the participating units, it is possible to implement a collaborative process of change, provided the needs and expectations of both the participants and the organisations are similar.The results obtained through Participatory Action Research were directly transferred to clinical practice, thus having an impact on individual nurses and patients, as well as on the collective dynamics of the teams and aspects related to the management of the units.Patient or public input is not directly applicable to this study. Patients were recipients of the changes that were occurring in the nurses as part of their daily clinical practice.© 2022 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.