BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing

What will I study?

Mental health is a critical element of overall wellbeing; mental health challenges and problems deeply affect individuals and communities. This essential aspect of health is now receiving the recognition and understanding it merits, leading to more effective recognition of mental ill health, leading to improved diagnosis and treatment strategies. Our society depends on the dedication of professionals who offer empathetic and expert care to those facing mental health challenges.

Choosing to study Mental Health Nursing is a decision to embark on a deeply rewarding and increasingly vital profession. This field is not just about understanding the complexities of mental health conditions, but it's also about fostering a deeper empathy, developing strong communication skills, and learning to offer holistic care that respects the dignity and individuality of each patient.

As a Mental Health Nurse, you'll be equipped to meet the growing need for professionals who can navigate the intricate landscape of mental health care. You'll learn how to work in diverse settings, from hospitals and community health centres to schools and private care environments, providing essential support to people of all ages and across all walks of life. In this role, you will be instrumental in advancing mental healthcare and providing the best treatment options available. Join us in making a profound and lasting impact in the field of mental health.

This course offers a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical experience. You'll explore the latest research and treatment approaches in mental health, while hands-on clinical placements will provide you with real-world experience under the guidance of experienced professionals. This combination ensures that you graduate not only with knowledge but with the confidence and competence to make a real difference.

Furthermore, studying Mental Health Nursing opens doors to a range of career opportunities. From clinical practice to research, policy-making, and advocacy, the skills you gain will be transferable across various roles, empowering you to shape your career in a way that aligns with your passions and goals.

Led by a dedicated teaching team of professional nurses and educators, you’ll have access to their wealth of clinical expertise and research activity. This will allow you to benefit from their experiences, insights and perspectives to enhance your learning.

Throughout your university mental health nursing course, we focus on your personal and professional development, giving you the option to personalise your course with a choice of option modules. Eligible students will also have the opportunity to undertake an elective learning experience of their choice.

As part of your BSc Mental Health nursing degree you will also complete authentic theory assessments which reflect real life nursing practices, such as presenting cases, medicines administration and report writing, preparing you for your future profession. 

We’ll help develop, encourage and nurture you throughout your studies. You’ll be supported in gaining the skills and knowledge to meet and manage the holistic, person-centred care needs of individuals across the lifespan in relation to the mental health-illness spectrum.

With a focus on personal and professional development, you’ll learn how to perform a range of mental health nursing skills with proficiency, predicated on contemporary knowledge and the understanding of best practice. These techniques will help you put solutions in place before a situation may escalate. 

From understanding and being able to refer to policies and procedures, to pharmacology and making the right care-decisions for a person, you’ll learn how to work as critically reflective, resilient practitioners, with an ability to learn from experience and solve problems.

The curriculum includes shared and field specific learning and teaching. This allows students from adult, mental health and children’s nursing courses to be taught and learn together, so you can benefit from their individual experiences, share insights and offer competing perspectives. You’ll be able to demonstrate your awareness of, and competence in working within, the multi-disciplinary teams within practice environments.

This innovative curriculum reflects Buckinghamshire New University’s core values of creating a learning environment that is inclusive, challenging and promotes collaboration, professionalism, and confidence in our students.

How will I be taught and assessed?

This full-time pre-registration nursing programme seamlessly blends academic and practical learning, fostering collaboration between the University and practice partners. Embracing a student-centred philosophy, the course enables you to gain essential knowledge, skills, and professional values necessary for the delivery of compassionate, safe, and effective mental health nursing care. 

Throughout the course, you’ll allocate approximately half of your time to clinical practice and the remaining half to University-based learning. Our strong partnerships with various NHS Trusts and independent care providers in the region ensure that students have diverse and enriching clinical placements. 

When you’re on campus, your academic study will be undertaken through varying including seminars, lectures, exploring authentic scenarios and case studies as well as online learning. 

Simulation is valued within the School of Nursing and Midwifery as supportive in enabling our nursing students to acquire skills and behaviours through practice. Nursing simulation incorporates the use of human patient simulators in a virtual ‘real-life’ healthcare environments and situations. Within this learning environment, real-time evolving clinical situations can be simulated, repeated, evaluated, and reflected, reducing the risk of patient harm.

To help build your digital skills, online teaching and digital learning opportunities, such as discussion boards and interactive web-based activities, will also be integrated throughout many modules within this programme. This helps you to develop and enhance the necessary digital skills required to work in today’s health care environments.

We include assessments which reflect real life nursing practices and, across the three years, you will be assessed through a number of means, such as:

• reflective assignment
• presentations
• exams
• academic poster development 
• assignments
• literature review 
• oral exams. 

You are also required to complete the knowledge skills and behaviours included in the Practice Assessment Document in each year of practice.