Nursing - Registered Nurse

Mental health nursing sits at the intersection of compassionate human care and rigorous clinical practice. It addresses some of the most complex and consequential challenges people face, from acute psychotic episodes and severe depression to long-term conditions such as bipolar disorder and personality disorders. Mental health nurses work across hospitals, community settings, prisons, and schools, forming therapeutic relationships that can be genuinely transformative for the people they support.

This three-year full-time programme at the University of Salford will prepare you to become a Registered Nurse (Mental Health) with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. You will study the biological, psychological, and social factors that shape mental health, and develop the clinical reasoning and communication skills needed to assess and plan care for people across the lifespan. The course covers therapeutic interventions, risk assessment, safeguarding, medicines management, and recovery-focused approaches.

Significant time is spent on practice placements across a range of NHS and community settings, giving you direct experience of working with people in crisis, in recovery, and in long-term support. Please note that this programme is currently undergoing a review, so elements of the course structure, module content, assessment methods, and delivery may change for September 2027 entry, with final details confirmed once the review is complete.

Qualifying as a mental health nurse opens doors to roles across the NHS, independent healthcare, local authority, and voluntary sectors. You might work as a community mental health nurse, a crisis practitioner, a liaison nurse in an acute hospital, or a specialist within services for eating disorders, substance misuse, or perinatal mental health. Many graduates go on to undertake postgraduate training as advanced nurse practitioners or move into nursing leadership, research, or education.

With mental health consistently at the centre of health policy, demand for skilled, compassionate nurses in this field continues to grow.