Nursing

Mental health nursing is a profession that works with some of the most complex and challenging experiences in human life. Mental health nurses support people living with a wide range of conditions, from anxiety and depression to psychosis, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, personality disorders and substance misuse problems. The role demands clinical knowledge and assessment skills, but equally requires genuine therapeutic presence, strong communication abilities and the capacity to build trusting relationships with people who are often in great distress.

It is a vocation that asks much of its practitioners and offers significant professional reward.

At the University of Brighton, this three-year full-time programme is registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and leads to qualification as a registered mental health nurse. Brighton's location in a city with a diverse and vibrant community provides a rich context for clinical placement learning. You will study mental health conditions and their biopsychosocial dimensions, therapeutic communication, psychopharmacology, risk assessment and management, the Mental Health Act, safeguarding frameworks and recovery-focused approaches to mental health care.

Clinical placements form a substantial part of the degree, with supervised experience across inpatient, community, crisis and specialist settings.

On qualifying, graduates are eligible to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and work as registered mental health nurses. Employment opportunities span the NHS, independent sector mental health services, prison healthcare, community mental health teams, crisis services, schools and social care organisations. The profession offers clear career development pathways, with routes into specialist nursing, advanced practice, management, education, research and therapeutic qualification.

Mental health nurses are in consistent demand, and the profession's scope continues to expand as awareness of mental health needs grows.