Mental health nurses work with people experiencing mental health difficulties across the lifespan. At the core of a mental health nurse's role is the ability to establish trusting therapeutic relationships with service users and with their families and carers. As a mental health nurse you would care for people affected by a range of mental health difficulties, for example: anxiety depression eating disorders psychological trauma psychosis and dementia. Mental health nurses support individuals and their families in a wide variety of settings, including in their own homes GP practices primary care facilities specialist nursing homes hospitals (both general and mental health) prisons community mental health nursing and forensic mental health units. Whatever your client group, you will use professional expertise, skills and knowledge to promote recovery and positive mental health.

WHY CHOOSE THIS COURSE?

Our mental health nursing course adopts a person-centred approach to enable you to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to provide safe and effective care. With this mental health nursing qualification you will, upon successful completion, be able to apply to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to practise as a registered mental health nurse in a range of diverse health and social care settings. Studying mental health nursing at the University of Wolverhampton is delivered by subject experts with extensive clinical experience and you will be supported to achieve a high clinical, professional and academic standard, we are also proud of our relationships with our partner organisations which were recently commended by the NMC.

Nursing is a demanding vocation which requires compassion, commitment, creativity and resilience, along with an ability to work independently and as part of a multi-disciplinary team. Mental health nursing, especially, requires a warm and empathic approach to help build trusting therapeutic relationships with people who are sometimes reluctant to engage. This course will develop your knowledge, skills and confidence as a practitioner working in partnership with service users and carers in a variety of settings. The course promotes personal resilience and critical thinking, and supports you to advocate on behalf of service users and carers and to provide effective evidence-based interventions and continuous service improvement.

What happens on the course?

THEORY

You will study a range of academic core (all fields of nursing) and field (mental health focused) modules based on theory and practice experiences. Your practice experiences will assist you in developing practical skills and professional awareness.

Your modules will also contain a range of key skills which are essential for lifelong learning, including numeracy (essential for medicines management), information technology, communication and working with others, problem solving and how to improve your learning.

The course aims to help you prepare yourself to adapt to new roles and the environments you will be working in. You will continuously learn in order to develop your nursing knowledge and skills as the start of career progression. Theoretical material will reflect the requirements of the National Health Service and Social Care Services and the changing needs of today's population.

PRACTICE

We have a dedicated practice team whose role it is to support the quality and variety of learning experiences you will be exposed to within your course that will enable you to meet the competencies required to be a Registered Mental Health Nurse. Placements will be within local NHS providers and in the Independent sector.