Background: Engaging and empowering people in their own care is a global health. Health professionals need to understand the patient and family perspective to provide effective and efficient care. Working with patients and family [consumers], listening to their story and understanding how to meet their needs. Including health consumers within teaching of health students enables an understanding of how to work with consumers. Health consumers are experts in their experience of healthcare, wanting a partnership with the healthcare provider, however the tertiary setting for teaching often lacks the consumer voice. Methods: A systematic review of literature was conducted over five databases exploring healthcare consumers’ contribution to teaching and learning in undergraduate health professional programs. The systematic review method was used to enable a broad range of literature to be included and facilitate analysis. Towle's taxonomy measured educational level of consumer engagement. A narrative analysis was conducted to identify themes. Results: A total of 109 articles were included, predominately from Ireland and United Kingdom. Nursing, medicine and social work were the main health disciplines focusing on mental health or chronic disease. The mean student sample size was 186 for quantitative studies and 43 for qualitative studies. Towles taxonomy indicates consumers were engaged in teaching and evaluating students, a pre-brief and debrief was needed for both the students and the health consumers. There was minimal evidence of engagement at higher levels of sustained involvement in teaching, evaluation, curriculum design, and policy development. The themes were developed into three aspects of consumer engagement: educational; human; and logistical perspectives. Conclusion: This review explored how health consumers work with undergraduate students to enable a deeper understanding of consumer experience of health care. Working to integrate consumers into undergraduate health professional programs at all levels of teaching will ensure stronger family partnerships in clinical practice.