Nursing

Mental health nursing is a professional discipline dedicated to the care and support of people experiencing a wide range of mental health conditions, from anxiety and depression to psychosis, personality disorders, and complex trauma. It requires the integration of clinical knowledge about mental health and its treatment with the human qualities of empathy, resilience, and the ability to build therapeutic relationships with people at some of the most difficult moments of their lives. Mental health nurses work in hospitals, community mental health teams, crisis services, prisons, schools, and a growing range of voluntary sector settings, and they play a central role in the recovery-focused care that characterises contemporary mental health services.

At Anglia Ruskin University, this three-year full-time BSc programme leads to registration as a mental health nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. You can begin this course in March in Chelmsford, as well as in September, giving you flexibility in when you start your studies. Throughout the programme you will combine academic study with substantial clinical placement experience, developing the knowledge, skills, and professional values needed to work safely and effectively with people experiencing mental health challenges.

You will study the biological, psychological, and social dimensions of mental health alongside the specific skills of assessment, care planning, therapeutic intervention, and risk management that mental health nursing requires.

Registered mental health nurses are in sustained demand across the NHS and the independent sector. Newly qualified nurses work across a range of settings including inpatient mental health units, crisis resolution and home treatment teams, community mental health teams, and forensic services. With experience, mental health nurses move into specialist roles including community psychiatric nursing, psychosocial interventions, leadership and management, education, and research.

Advanced practice routes including nurse prescribing and consultant nursing roles are also open to experienced practitioners. Postgraduate study in mental health nursing, clinical psychology, or related healthcare fields provides routes to specialist clinical and academic positions.