Currently submitted to: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Aug 30, 2026
Open Peer Review Period: Aug 31, 2026 - Oct 26, 2026
(currently open for review)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The effects of Balint groups on creating a sustainable working environment for doctors: a scoping review protocol
ABSTRACT
Background:
Balint groups are a form of peer-reflective learning practice which has an established use in both general practice and psychiatry training. The sessions aim to facilitate the processing of difficult consultations by encouraging the participants to reflect upon the emotional experience of both the patient and the clinician during their interaction.The increasing pressures on healthcare provision across different specialities are reflected in a growing number of physicians leaving medicine. This scoping review aims to identify existing implementation of Balint groups across different specialities in the literature and the resulting impact this practice has on the working environment for doctors. Additionally, the scoping review aims to highlight gaps within the literature to support future research.
Objective:
This protocol describes the scoping review process, with the primary research question: What are the current applications of Balint groups, and how do they impact the working environment of participating clinicians?
Methods:
The proposed review will follow the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and will report the findings using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) checklist. A systematic search of both academic and grey literature databases will be conducted. The review will include studies which feature physicians and clinicians participating in Balint groups. Screening will comprise a three stage process of the title, abstract , full text and citations if necessary. Two reviewers will utilise the systematic review management program Rayyan and any disagreements will be noted and discussed. The subsequent data extraction will be performed by one reviewer and checked by the second, any disagreements will be discussed. Within the analysis, the review aims to highlight gaps in the literature to inform future research.
Results:
No results as this is a protocol.
Conclusions:
No conclusions as this is a protocol. Clinical Trial: This protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/EDS7W
Citation
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Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.