As a mental health nurse you are in a unique and privileged position. You play a key role in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating the wide-ranging care needs of people experiencing mental health problems and their families. This requires hard work, commitment and excellent interpersonal skills.

If you are a motivated graduate with healthcare experience, this course gives you an exciting opportunity to work towards professional registration within two years, and prepares you for a fulfilling and successful career in mental health nursing.

You develop the essential knowledge and mental health nursing skills required to care for people and their families in a variety of diverse mental healthcare settings including hospital and community care. During these placements you are required to participate in shift working to include weekends and night duties.

You become a confident and competent skilled practitioner and, ultimately, demonstrate your ability to lead and manage the care of individuals and their families. You develop as a resilient and future-ready nurse with strong professional values, to exercise clinical judgement, challenge inequality, champion diversity and uphold the integrity of the profession whilst delivering high-quality, person-centred compassionate care.

The course content reflects the changing and challenging nature of providing healthcare in the 21st century and the evolving and diverse role of the registered nurse. Leadership is embedded throughout the course, recognising the crucial role nurses play in moving practice forward. The course places a strong focus on you working with students from the child, adult and learning disability fields of nursing to engage in shared learning through experience. There is emphasis on cognitive and mental health issues impacting on physical health - and vice versa - and the essential need to consider biological, psychological and social care across the age continuum, bridging the existing gaps between healthcare service