Nursing (Mental Health) BSc Honours

In year one, you'll cover the main scientific and biological underpinnings of mental health nursing such as anatomy and physiology and core communication skills. You'll also have your first placement experience, for which you'll be fully supported and prepared.

You'll be introduced to the fundamentals of mental health and wellbeing and consolidate your development through the Expansive Learning module which is designed to put your professional learning in a personal and social context.

This module equips you to develop your self-awareness through reflective activities. You will develop a broad understanding of the complexity of health and social care issues and the development of appropriate professional attitude, skills and knowledge. Additionally the module offers you the opportunity to develop a range of applied skills through active enquiry, synthesis and reflection.

This module starts developing the role and function of the graduate mental health nurse in health and illness. It will provide the fundamental nursing knowledge required to undertake basic nursing assessment, support and enable people across different life spans in managing and improving physical and mental health, and preventing ill health. Theories, evidence and models to support the art and science of nursing will be introduced to develop knowledge and understanding about the nature of nursing, the person, health, society and the environment. 

This module will introduce and expand on the scientific principles underpinning nursing practice. This comprehensive module introduces principles which draw on scientific areas of biopsychosocial and behavioural sciences as related to all areas of nursing with a focus on mental health nursing. 

You will be able to demonstrate knowledge and skills in meeting the fundamental care needs of people across their lifespan, with a range of physical, mental, cognitive and behavioural health challenges. You will demonstrate high standards of professional conduct in line with the NMC code in all aspects of your practice and be able to carry out a range of procedures, under supervision, that are expected of you at this level, in a variety of health and social care settings.  

This module develops your professional and leadership knowledge, and self-awareness through critical reflective activities and evaluation of your own learning. It builds your theorical knowledge to enhance clinical and professional judgements and independence. The module provides in-depth knowledge of your subject area of choice, with reference and application to the wider complexities of health and social care.

This module develops the knowledge and skills required of the graduate mental health nurse to assess, plan and evaluate care across the lifespan during illness that is person centred and evidence-based. It will focus on interventions to address physical, cognitive, mental, spiritual, behavioural and social health needs during illness. 

This module will build upon the scientific module of year one to further develop principles and deepen the knowledge and application to all fields of nursing. 

You will demonstrate the relevant knowledge and skills to meet more complex care needs of people across the lifespan with a range of mental, physical, cognitive and behavioural health challenges, across a range of health and social care settings in line with the new standards of proficiency. You will be expected to demonstrate increasing independence in their own field of mental health practice whilst maintaining high standards of professional conduct in line with the NMC Code, showing awareness of the implications of the Code for self and others. 

This module builds upon and consolidates your knowledge and skills to manage and lead as an accountable, responsible, emotionally intelligent nurse. It will support you to understand your own learning needs, and that of others so that you can evaluate and investigate complex problems, and socially engaging nursing practice.

This module enables you to critically engage with the coordination and management of care delivery for those individuals who are severely ill with life-threatening or limiting illness, or have complex physical/mental health needs requiring long-term care in a range of healthcare settings, working in partnership with the individual, your families where relevant and the multi-disciplinary team to evaluate whether the care is effective and meets desired outcomes. It will focus on encouraging you to build on prior learning in relation to critically applying nursing knowledge, evidence/research and the nursing process in the planning and co-ordination of care for the individual with complex needs.

This module builds upon the scientific module of year two to consolidate scientific principles and deepen the knowledge and application. It also extends knowledge and application of pharmacological principles especially as to underpin nursing care within own field of practice and future potential prescribing practice. 

You will be able to demonstrate the ability to work autonomously in the mental health field of practice caring for all people across the lifespan with a range of physical, mental, cognitive and behavioural challenges. You will display advanced clinical skills and have the ability to integrate leadership in all aspects of care management. You will utilise a critical and reflective approach in delivering high standards of professional conduct in line with the NMC Code as part of a multi-disciplinary team.  

You will gain knowledge through:

• 50% of learning will take place in the practice setting (including Simulated Practice Learning) and
• 50% theory based in the university.  

Our formal teaching methods include: lectures, participatory seminars, small group discussions, self-guided and directed learning, e-learning, support from the academic advisor, skills laboratory and practical clinical sessions, use of virtual and augmented reality resources and clinical placements.

This contains a number of activities which facilitate your understanding and development of nursing skills and serves as a tool for use in practice learning.  This will help you apply your skills to real life situations and demonstrate drawing on theoretical and practical skills and research to engage critically with decision making and providing high quality patient care.  

Practice-based learning amounts to 50% of the entire course and students must complete a set amount of hours to meet the professional body’s clinical criteria for professional registration. By the end of the course, you will have completed 2,300 hours of clinical training.

Outside of teaching hours, you’ll learn independently through self-study which will involve reading articles and books, working on projects, undertaking research, and preparing for assessments including coursework, presentations and exams.

Practice-based learning amounts to 50% of the entire course and you must complete a set amount of hours to meet the professional body’s clinical criteria for professional registration.

Throughout the course, we emphasise the development of practical skills, and the course is split equally between theory and practice. By the end of the course, you'll have completed 2,300 hours of clinical training and 2,300 hours of theory.

Here is an indication of how you will split your time each year:

Whether you are studying full or part-time – your course timetable will balance your study commitments on campus with time for work, life commitments and independent study.

We aim to make timetables available to students at least 2 weeks before the start of term. Some weeks are different due to how we schedule classes and arrange on-campus sessions.

During your first year, your weekly timetable will typically consist of:

• 12 hours of seminars, which will incorporate case scenario discussion, group work, and presentations 
• 4-6 hours of supervised simulation and demonstrations in the clinical skills areas at Stone X
• Per academic year you will have 2 hours of support from the Learning Enhancement Team (LET) for academic writing and 3 numeracy sessions
• 1 hour of personal professional development with you academic advisor (a total of 4 sessions per academic year).

Assessment is through exams (including OSCEs), practical assessments and coursework. Coursework will include a dissertation, your portfolio, reports, care plans, drug calculations, individual and group presentations, online assessments and learning logbooks.

We'll test your understanding and progress with informal and formal tests.

The informal tests usually take place at least once per module, from which you’ll receive feedback from your tutor. The grades from these tests don’t count towards your final marks.

There are formal assessments for each module, usually at the end, which will count towards your module and your final marks.

Assessments are reviewed annually and may be updated based on student feedback or feedback from an external examiner.

You will be supervised during your learning period in practice by NMC registered nurses, midwives, nursing associates and / or other registered health and social care professionals. First year mental health student nurses may have a learning disability placement assessed by non-nursing staff.   

Coursework, group work and assessment

Formal exams and essay writing are not always the best way to assess knowledge so we prefer to minimise this as much as possible for a more blended approach that emphasises group work and assessment. This reflects the team nature of how nurses work in teams when in practice.