Curious about studying Nursing (Mental Health)at University of Essex? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Science (with Honours) - BSc (Hons)
Colchester Campus
Full Time
Oct 2026
3 Year
There's never been a better time to train as a nurse! Not only is public appreciation for nurses growing, so is the funding. You can now apply for a £5000 grant that you won't need to pay back! Mental Health Nursing has been confirmed as a shortage group which means you will be eligible to apply for an additional £1000. There is also an extra £3000 funding available depending on your personal circumstances. As many as one in three people in the UK have issues with their mental health at some stage of their life. Nurses who specialise in mental health, a complex and demanding area, work with GPs, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others, to help care for patients with mental illnesses. As a mental health nurse, you focus on the therapeutic relationship with those with mental ill health, and with their families. You provide the support and treatment to meet their physical, psychological, social, mental and spiritual care needs. More than anything else, mental health nursing requires empathy, to care about the people you are working with. Unlike many of the older, traditional nursing schools, at Essex you receive a fresh, contemporary and relevant nurse education programme, integrated into a University that is one of the UK's top ten research institutions. You work with local organisations to ensure that you gain the best experience possible during your time with us, and studying alongside other health professionals means that you also have the opportunity to gain expert knowledge from them. The cost of required uniform will be fully covered by the school.
LocationYou can choose to study this course at either our Colchester campus or our Southend campus - and your placements will correspond to the campus you choose. Colchester students will have placements in north Essex, while Southend students will have placements in south Essex. Whilst this course is offered at both our Southend and Colchester campuses, we recommend that you consider which location would suit you best and apply for that campus. If you apply to multiple campuses, you will only have one interview and your chances of being offered a place will be the same as if you had only applied to one campus. If you wish to change campus at any point during the admissions process then please contact your Admissions Adviser who will do their best to accommodate your preference. Changing campus is subject to availability.
Placement opportunitiesPractice placements Half of your studies will be spent working in clinical settings – for example, in a ward, a health centre or in client’s homes. You will be working alongside nurses as you practise and perfect your skills. Placements are based in NHS, private and voluntary settings throughout Essex. Essex covers a large area (3,465 sq km /1,300 sq miles), so clinical placements will normally be allocated to one area for the whole of your course, either in the SE Essex, SW Essex, W Essex, Mid Essex or NE Essex areas. Given the size of the county, all of these areas may require some travelling to placement. During your time in placement you will work shift patterns equivalent to approximately a 37.5 hour week. This includes early shifts, late shifts, night shifts, weekend and bank holiday working.
Study abroadYour education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course. Studying abroad allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised.
Applying knowledge of behavioural sciences provides the foundations for understanding people’s lived experiences of mental and emotional wellbeing and distress, enables nurses to deliver person-centred nursing care, and supports practices that encourage environmental and behavioural changes. This module prepares students in the fundamentals of behavioural sciences as applied to nursing. It recognises the interaction of environmental and individual circumstances that shape and influence behaviours and ‘choices’. The module introduces and applies best practice approaches to managing situations where students observe mental and emotional distress, neglect, abuse, aggression, self-harm and suicidal ideation in a range of contexts and settings.
Applying knowledge of anatomy, physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology provides the foundations for understanding people's lived experiences of physical health, physical deterioration and distress. This knowledge also enables nurses to deliver person-centred care and initiate interventions that reduce distress and restore homeostasis. This module prepares students in the fundamentals of life sciences as applied to nursing. It recognises the interaction of the external and internal environments that shape and influence people's experiences of physical health. The module introduces and applies best practice approaches to managing situations where students observe physical ill health, distress, and deterioration in a range of contexts and settings.
This module prepares students for practice-based learning and to assess, plan and deliver person-centred care. Students will develop confidence and competence in the range of fundamental nursing knowledge, proficiencies and procedures and develop an understanding of their professional accountability as a registered nurse. Students will also be introduced to fundamental research capabilities so that they can locate, identify and incorporate evidence from a range of sources with their emergent practice.
Recognising the political, social and environmental determinants of health and wellbeing are fundamental in allowing nurses to challenge health inequalities and discrimination. This module prepares students in the fundamentals of health promotion and protection, within the context of these determinants. It takes a critical public health perspective to identify how political and social structures have consequences for the health and wellbeing of people and populations. The module applies this emergent understanding to the role of nurses in health promotion and health screening to improve and maintain the health, wellbeing and welfare of the people, communities and populations they work with. This module has been designed to enable students to integrate their subject knowledge with an understanding of sustainable development, acquiring the skills and competencies essential for addressing the urgent sustainability challenges of the 21st century.
Advocacy is a central tenet of the philosophies and practices of healthcare provisioning and central to the critical study and engagement with global public health. Drawing on the principles of social justice, this module encourages you to critically consider what it means to be an advocate for the right to health of people who are seeking to access and use health services, and to explore strategies to constructively and actively resist those practices and policies that have detrimental consequences for groups of people. You will be able to choose between this module and HS958 - Public Mental Health
This module prepares students to participate in practice-based learning, reasoning and decision-making to deliver person-centred care. Students will develop confidence and competence in the range of enhanced nursing proficiencies and nursing procedures. Students will develop and demonstrate emergent leadership, collaborating with service users and other professions to make decisions about how person-centred care is provided to an individual or small group of people.
Relationship-based practice is central to the provision of safe and compassionate person-centred care. This module comprehensively prepares students in relationship-based practices that provide the foundations for person-centred nursing care. Students will develop proficiency in approaches to skilled communication and relationship management (Annexe A Section 2), NMC standards, and approaches for providing evidence-based therapeutic interventions (Annexe A, Section 3) Students will consider how these approaches apply in different situations and fields of practice.
This module allows students to review and appraise the resources, interventions and therapies at the disposal of registered nurses and to select appropriately from these to provide safe and effective care in the complex situations that nursing can operate within. The delivery of any intervention or therapy requires careful consideration in terms of both the evidence base for that intervention and safeguarding people's autonomy in the decision-making process. The module will draw upon experiences of working with people with a range of physical and mental health co-morbidities.
Monitoring and evaluating the quality of care practices and services, and making subsequent service changes are fundamental for improving the safety and quality of care. Improvements in care and treatment that enhance the outcomes that people experience can be transformative when the people whose experiences matter most are involved in the design of the service. This module offers students the opportunity to work closely with people with lived experience, citizens and service users to consult on, develop, co-design and lead participatory quality improvement initiatives. Students will select questions and issues that are important to people, and co-design a proposal to address these issues in partnership with people with lived experience, quality and education leads in partner organisations, and the support of an academic supervisor.
This module prepares students to lead, manage and coordinate care during practice-based learning experiences. Students will develop independence in the range of enhanced mental health nursing proficiencies and procedures. Students will demonstrate critical, reflective, and person-centred leadership when working with others, and demonstrate proficiency in managing the complexities and ambiguities of challenging and conflicting episodes of mental health care.
Preparation in the principles of supervision and feedback ensures that students are ready to act as practice supervisors and are ready to learn to become practice assessors at the point of registration. Students will consider approaches to clinical and practice supervision and how these contribute to the development of peers and learners. Students will have the opportunity to supervise and coach less experienced students in both practice and university-based/simulated settings (e.g. in Person-Centred Care 1 and selected other modules.) Students will enhance and develop an awareness of cultural competence, processes of constructive feedback, reflective appraisal, and formative and summative assessment. They will be encouraged to develop approaches to coaching and supervision whilst considering how to challenge circumstances that impact upon the quality of a learning environment.
This module consolidates learning around compassionate, clinical leadership in mental health nursing. Students will consider the accountabilities and human consequences associated with their own and others' leadership decisions at the point of care. They will be supported to explore the complexities and uncertainties of clinical situations. Students will critically examine how the 'quality' of care is defined, measured and audited, and the impact of these measurements on the lived experiences of people. They will reflect upon their own professional development needs and proactively plan their own development.
BBB Grades/points required
Not currently available, please Contact University for up to date information.
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