Canterbury Christ Church University - BSc Mental Health Nursing

Canterbury Christ Church University

BSc Mental Health Nursing

Become a mental health nurse, a crucial role in supporting people who are experiencing or recovering from a range of mental health problems.

As a mental health nurse, each day brings new challenges and experiences. Our course will help you to develop the skills you need to make a difference to the lives of people in mental distress and offer eligibility for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

As part of your studies, you'll undertake practice placements and apply your learning in a variety of settings including hospitals, care homes and in the community. Each of the modules has a theme such as the recognition, assessment, care planning and interventions for mental illnesses.

Entry Requirements

GCSE English language and mathematics grades A-C / 4-9 or equivalent. Functional Skills level 2 accepted.

A typical offer would be BBC at A2 Level, or equivalent

Overseas students - all must attend for interview (no Skype). If English is not your first language you require IELTS overall score of 7, with scores of at least 7 in reading, listening and speaking, and at least 6.5 in writing.

Offers of a place can only be made after a successful interview, and are subject to a satisfactory reference, health clearance and Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Career Prospects

On successful completion of the course, you'll be eligible to apply for registration with the NMC.

There are a wide range of roles that registered mental health nurses can pursue, in services which specialise in child and adolescent, adult and older persons mental health. You can focus on crisis management, recovery, rehabilitation, liaison psychiatry, psychosis, personality disorder forensic mental health, court liaison, and street triage, substance misuse and eating disorders.

Other career opportunities could involve clinical leadership, management, education or research. Additionally, there are opportunities within our Faculty of Health and Wellbeing to progress onto postgraduate study, MSc or PhD studies or commence specialist training as psychotherapists.

Course Details

As a mental health nurse, you'll require a wide range of both theoretical and clinical knowledge to enable you to practice safely and effectively. In order to achieve this, you'll undertake five modules per year: a practice module; a clinical supervision module and three mental health nursing modules.

You'll explore areas including:

  • mental illness and mental health
  • biopsychosocial therapeutic interventions
  • psychothereapeutic and systemic approaches
  • trauma informed practice
  • assessment and planning care
  • service users’ and carers perspectives on care
  • evidence-based practice
  • human biology, pathology, and psychopharmacology
  • reflective practice and clinical supervision
  • extensive and advanced physical clinical skills.

Practice placements are an integral part of the course and you'll spend 50% of your time studying in University and a further 50% of your time in a wide variety of acute, recovery and specialist placements, in hospital, community and forensic settings.

During your practice placements, you'll work with children, adolescents, adults and older people with mental health and psychological problems, as well as people with learning disabilities.

Theoretical modules will cover a variety of relevant subjects including law and ethics, professional issues, empathy, service users' experience of mental illness and working with people with learning disability, mental health and psychological problems.

In the final year of the course, you'll cover psychodynamic and systemic approaches to mental health and will learn about specialist services and care. 

Year 1

Mental Health Nursing Practice 1
Mental Health Clinical Supervision and Professional Development 1
Enhancing our Understanding of Mental Health Problems
Introducing the Skills and Parameters of Mental Health Nursing
Fundamentals of Clinical Science

Year 2

Mental Health Nursing Practice 2
Mental Health Clinical Supervision and Professional Development 2
Collaborative bio psycho - social approaches to mental health – Engagement and assessment
Collaborative bio psycho - social approaches to mental health - formulation and planning care
Collaborative bio psycho - social approaches to mental health – evidence based Interventions

Year 3

Mental Health Nursing Practice 3
Mental Health Clinical Supervision & Professional Development 3
Nursing People with Complex Needs
Psychotherapeutic and Systemic approaches to Culturally Competent Practice
Mental Health Nursing Dissertation

*The information’s are correct at the time of publishing, however it may change if university makes any changes after we have published the information. While we try our best to provide correct information, It is advisable to call us or visit university website for up to date information.

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