The field of Mental Health is vast and mental health nursing is a unique field where nursing care encapsulates the meaning of recovery and wellness, with a holistic, individualised approach.
At the University of Cumbria, we offer a course in Pre-registration Mental health Nursing, lasting 3 years. Having gained an Honours degree in the subject and having met the competence to join the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a registered Mental health Nurse (RMN), you’ll be equipped to begin your career as an RMN.
Mental health nurses will work with various needs of individuals across the lifespan but will usually specialise in a certain area, from the onset of problems in young people and prevention of illness to adults recovering from certain conditions to specialist dementia care services.
At the University of Cumbria, mental health nurses are taught to consider and scrutinise what ‘recovery’ truly means for individuals receiving professional support for their mental health. So much research and theory underpins this concept and MH nurses are taught the fundamental skills in being able to foster supportive, professional, and therapeutic relationships with those who they care for, no matter the condition or severity.
Mental health nurses are taught key therapeutic interventions, such as techniques used in CBT and SFBT and techniques in facilitating therapeutic conversation with those they come in contact with. Mental health nurses are taught the meaning of the therapeutic relationship, and how this serves as the lifeblood of all interactions and interventions, which may take place within a person’s recovery journey.
The key characteristics of a good mental health nurse are to be adaptable, dynamic and flexible, caring and kind, genuine and non-judgmental, to have unconditional positive regard for others, and are taught to bring this together in adopting their approaches to working with people across varied settings with various needs, some complex. As well as this, mental health nurses have knowledge of pharmacology and specific medication used as part-treatment of certain mental health conditions. MH nurses learn how maintaining good physical health is pivotal in ensuring good mental health, recognising the human brain is a physical organ in as much recognition for its other complexities.
At the University of Cumbria, student mental health Nurses can expect to learn all this and more, with two placements a year set in either a ward or community team environment, students will have the opportunity to learn from experts in psychiatry and mental health professionals specialising within local teams. Some placements include; memory clinic, dementia services, inpatient adult, inpatient and community Child and Adolescence services (CAMHS), community MH teams, crisis team, and A&E liaison service, to name a few.
Recognition for the importance of good mental health in supporting overall wellbeing is rising daily and the demand for mental health nurses is growing. Those qualifying as mental health nurses with us have gone on to be CAMHS nurses, eating disorder nurses, specialise in perinatal care, CBT therapists, school nurses, advanced practitioners, prison nurses, and lecturers.
There is so much you can go on to do once qualifying as a mental health nurse. More doors will open and more opportunities will find you once you begin your career and meet like-minded people who share the same goals as you, to achieve better mental health for all. What are you waiting for, apply now.
Nursing Pay scales: https://www.rcn.org.uk/employment-and-pay/nhs-pay-scales-2017-18 - See what you could earn as a nurse working in the NHS. Nurses qualify and register from a degree programme at Band 5.
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