Mental Health Nursing Practice BSc (Hons)

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Deliver restorative interventions to those experiencing mental distress and illness. Develop interpersonal therapeutic skills to promote recovery and positive mental wellbeing. Graduate ready to deliver effective and sincere person-centred care.

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Overview

BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing Practice will lead to registration as a qualified nurse in mental health. You will graduate ready to actively participate and engage with a cutting-edge workforce delivering caring, compassionate and restorative interventions to those experiencing mental distress and illness. As a critical thinker, you will deliver effective and sincere person-centred care based upon a contemporary evidence-base, which will be administered and applied within a spectrum of clinical skills to include physical health monitoring and promotion, and interpersonal therapeutic skills to promote recovery and positive mental wellbeing.

You will be competent and confident in working with and supporting a ‘whole-systems’ approach in diverse settings, ensuring the mental well-being of families and carers with a relative experiencing mental distress. Partnership working with multi-professionals and services will ensure the very best care and outcomes for those experiencing mental illness.

Upcoming start dates
27 April 2020
14 September 2020

Why us?

The course has been developed in collaboration with two local NHS health care providers, Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust (CNTW) and Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys Foundation Trust (TEWV), who have directly informed the content of the curriculum
Opportunities to collaborate in an interprofessional learning capacity with other healthcare courses including pharmacy, paramedic science, medicine, biomedical science, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.

Our Nursing courses are in the top five in the UK according to The Guardian University league tables 2018
The University of Sunderland was ranked 12th in the Courses and Lecturers category of the Whatuni Student Choice Awards 2019

Course structure

We use various methods of teaching including:

Problem-based learning
Seminar groups and interactive workshop sessions
Inter-professional experiential learning
Consolidation sessions
The role of simulation in the development of competence
Webcasts
Clinical skills sessions
Patient and professional contact
Inter-professional learning
Self-directed study
The University of Sunderland Virtual Learning Environment
The Nurse Navigator System

Assessment methods include written reports, essays, examinations, oral presentations, portfolios, clinical reflection diary, competency log, patient care plan and case studies.

Year 1 (national level 4):

Enquiry for Nursing Practice (10 credits)

Develop the required skills for evidence-based practice. Build upon existing study skills required to meet the academic requirements of the course. Gain insight into engagement with learning styles, teaching methods and the assessment process. Practice using source materials for the purpose of referencing and citation. Present work to a variety of audiences, for example; peers, academic staff, practice colleagues and Patient, Carer, Public Involvement (PCPI) participants.

Bio-psychosocial Principles of Health and Wellbeing (20 credits)

Learn through a systems-based approach to anatomy and physiology, psychology and microbiology using patient journeys as illustrations to enhance learning. Explore human health and wellbeing in the context of Public Health and symptoms of disease. Learn to communicate complex medical terminology to both colleagues and patients in an understandable manner through engagement in discussions of practice experiences with both peers and Patient Carer, Public Involvement (PCPI) participants.

Develop your understanding of the physiological processes, anatomical and cognitive structures of the human body beginning at a molecular and cellular level and culminating in a complete overview of organs and systems. Explore overarching themes in anatomy, physiology pathophysiology, and neurology supported by taught sessions that facilitate inquiry-based learning.

Foundations of Nursing Practice (30 credits)

Explore the core skills of nursing and take a holistic view of the individual focusing on health promotion, comprehensive assessment and the application of evidence-based practice. Understand models of reflective practice to support learning and professional development while supporting the development of building effective relationships with clients and others involved in the provision of healthcare. Focus on three core elements that reflect the competence, professionalism and underpinning knowledge which characterise a high-quality nursing workforce which underpins the values base of the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Gain necessary psychomotor skills to perform the core and essential skills of nursing practice through interactive clinical skills sessions with PCPIs in our Living Lab and Mental Health and Wellbeing Suite. Explore the consequences of error and negligence in a risk-free environment through considerable simulated experience.

Practice Placement 1 (60 credits)

Apply theoretical components to clinical practice. Study models of reflective practice together with an overview of interprofessional working. Gain experience and insight into lived patient experience. Understand the importance of respecting an individual’s autonomy and right to make decisions about their own health and wellbeing.

Some modules have prerequisites. Read more about what this means in our Help and Advice article.

Year 2 (national level 5):

Application of Evidence Based Practice for Nurses (20 credits)

Develop an understanding of the key issues related to healthcare practice informed by the best available evidence to support shared decision making. Explore the nature of evidence available to inform practice and discuss sourcing the evidence for practice. Gain critical appraisal skills and debate how best available evidence can be integrated into healthcare practice and healthcare policy. Explore the nature of knowledge and how this underpins nursing and healthcare practice. Debate the ethical issues that underpin best practice including consent and risk management. Use a range of research methods and explore their merits and appropriate use. Explore the nature of clinical judgment and research integration.

Holistic Nursing for Altered Physiology to Promote Well Being (40 credits)

Gain knowledge of major pathological and physiological changes in the human body, occurring as a result of common diseases, and disease processes. Explore the manifestations, impacts and interventions of illness and disease. Build on your foundational knowledge of physical and human sciences and explore altered pathological and physiological change. Use a range of teaching and learning strategies to explore the impact of these changes and define the implications for nursing practice. Study co-morbidity and medico pharmaceutical treatments and modalities in order to enhance wellbeing and recovery, within the context of ethical and professional frameworks.

Practice Placement 2 (60 credits)

Develop knowledge and the application of nursing practice interventions to provide evidence-based, safe, and compassionate physical and psychological care. Effectively assess, plan and implement care and demonstrate a range of nursing interventions. Develop skills and knowledge to formulate a nursing plan of care and undertake observations and clinical interventions with less direct supervision.

Year 3 (national level 6):

Dissertation (40 credits)

Attend formal sessions which explore the evidence base of nursing practice, the range and hierarchy of evidence for particular healthcare issues. On this basis, select a particular area in your field of nursing. Develop your ability to make informed use of published research and other sources of evidence and information in order to apply findings to enhance practice; enabling your production of an independent, negotiated project that analyses an aspect of your discipline.

Leadership and Interprofessional Learning (20 credits)

Develop knowledge and understanding in self-awareness, improving healthcare and working with others. Gain an understanding of key leadership theories and models. Explore your application to healthcare and reflect on your personal strengths along with areas for development. Explore the role of service improvement techniques, approaches in service provision and development to improve healthcare, developing an understanding of clinical governance. Consider roles and responsibilities of all professionals alongside the values of team work in interprofessional care.

Explore carer and user perspectives in interprofessional care settings to illuminate personal experiences of interprofessional care. Explore the challenges of shared decision making in interprofessional practice through interactive workshop sessions. Study ethical issues in the context of interprofessional working to drive discussion and debate and gain insight into challenges faced from a variety of professional viewpoints. Study the impact of information technology, healthcare informatics and issues in transcultural healthcare provision.

Integrated Practice Placement 3 (60 credits)

Develop your knowledge and application of nursing to practice within a range of clinical settings. Study care provision across the human lifespan including the health and wellbeing continuum. Learn biological, psychological and sociological theory in the context of person-centred care. Focus on individuals with complex health needs with emphasis on the concept of co-morbidity and the implications for care this entails. Explore pharmacological principles and concordance.

More about BSc (Hons) Mental Health Nursing Practice at Sunderland

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Helen McArdle House is based on our City Campus and has benefited from multi-million pound investment in modern facilities in recent years.
Many of our healthcare courses are taught here, including Nursing, Paramedic Science, Medicine and Healthcare Sciences, and our School of Psychology is also based here.
The building is made up of a variety of teaching and learning spaces, including mock hospital wards, OSCE suites, the Patient Diagnostic Suite, Mental Health and Wellbeing Suite and seminar and IT classrooms.
A lot of academic staff offices are based here, with an open-door policy in place.
Helen McArdle House
The Living Lab boasts a unique immersive simulation room, that allows participants to experience a range of simulated scenarios in a safe environment. The space is designed to make scenarios feel as close to reality as possible, to enable students to practice their clinical skills safely. An adjacent debrief room allows groups to observe the scenario in the immersive suite through a live stream (projected onto TV screens) and provide peer feedback and group discussion following the completion of the scenario.
Immersive Suite
The University boasts a collection of more than 430,000 books in total, with many more titles available through the inter-library loan service. There are nearly 9,000 journal titles, mostly in electronic format. Each year the University invests around £1 million in new resources. As a student, you will have access to a huge range of online databases such as:

British National Formulary:
Compiled with the advice of clinical experts, the British National Formulary (BNF) provides up-to-date guidance on prescribing, dispensing and administering medicines.

The British Pharmacopoeia:
The British Pharmacopoeia (BP) is the authoritative collection of quality standards for UK medicines and is an essential reference for anyone involved in pharmaceutical R&D, manufacture, testing and regulation.

CINAHL:
CINAHL with Full Text is the world’s most comprehensive source of full text for nursing & allied health journals, providing full text for more than 600 journals indexed in CINAHL.

The Cochrane Library:
The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making.

PubMed Central:
PubMed Central is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 25 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles and includes links to full text articles and other related resources.

ScienceDirect:
ScienceDirect is a leading full-text scientific database offering journal articles and book chapters covering physical sciences, life sciences, health sciences, and social sciences and humanities.
Library Services - pharmacy, health and wellbeing
The Mental Health Ward is designed to feel like a real Mental Health Ward, with bedrooms, a day room, seclusion room and treatment room, and is suitable to run a range of mental health scenarios.
Mental Health Ward
Our Mock Hospital Wards are based in the Living Lab and Helen McArdle House, on City Campus and are used by students across a wide range of healthcare courses, including Nursing, Paramedic Science, Pharmacy, Biosciences and Healthcare Science. All wards are equipped with industry-standard clinical equipment, including life-like simulation manikins, and are suitable to run different scenarios, from clinical skills, to role playing, fully immersing students in a dynamic learning environment.
Mock Hospital Ward
OSCE stands for Objective Structured Clinical Examination. An OCSE is a practical assessment that students studying Nursing, Medicine, and Allied Health courses must undertake to test clinical skill competency.
OSCE Suite
There are a range of simulation manikins used across most of our healthcare courses, giving you the opportunity to apply your training in a realistic, yet safe, setting.
Our manikins range from various SimMan patient simulators (SimMan 3G, SimMan ALS, Sim Junior and Sim Baby to name a few) to CAE Apollo and Caesar manikins, to anatomically realistic SimBodies and lower-fidelity simulation manikins.
SimMan and Apollo manikins can demonstrate realistic physiological behaviour, including blood pressure, a pulse, drug recognition technology (in SimMan 3G) and each model can be pre-programmed with various medical scenarios.
Simulation Technology
The Sciences Complex is based on our City Campus. It has benefited from multi-million pound investment in modern facilities in recent years and continues to develop as our health sciences offer grows.

It is the central hub for many of our health and sciences courses and is made up of a variety of teaching and learning spaces, including labs, problem-based learning classrooms and facilities that encourage interprofessional learning. A lot of academic staff offices are based here, with an open-door policy in place.
The Sciences Complex
Map and directions

Facilities

The University of Sunderland offers modern and well-equipped facilities at our Sciences Complex.

Entry requirements

Our typical offer is 112 UCAS points from a minimum of two A Levels or equivalent, which must include a Health or Science related subject. Please note we do not accept General Studies AS or A Level.

Find out how many points your qualifications are worth using the UCAS Tariff calculator.

We also require at least five passes at GCSE grade C or above which must include Mathematics and English Language or equivalent. If you have studied for a GCSE which has a numerical grade then you will need to achieve a grade 4 or above.

Please note we are unable to accept applications from outside of the EU. You can find other acceptable qualifications in our Applying help and advice articles.

Your completed application form will be reviewed by our Admissions Team to ensure that you have the required entry qualifications. If you meet these requirements, then your application will be individually assessed by the Mental Health Nursing Practice Admissions Tutor and if successful you will be shortlisted for interview.

The selection process will include an individual interview and a two group activities which will assess you on your values, problem solving and communication skills.

Accreditation of Prior Learning (APL): This is available to applicants who meet the course-specific APL requirements. It may apply to applicants who wish to transfer their NMC approved nursing studies from another university where they have achieved 120 credits at Level 4.

Access: We would be looking for a combination of merit and distinctions in your level 3 units which should preferably include some units in a Health or a Science related subject. We also require a minimum of grade C in maths and English language or equivalent. If you have studied for a GCSE which has a numerical grade then you will need to achieve a grade 4 or above.

Fitness to Practise: Nursing is a registered health care profession for which the ability to practise safely and effectively and professionally is essential, so all nursing applicants will be subjected to Fitness to Practise procedures.

This means you are required to complete two self-declaration forms, one about your health and the other about your conduct. For UK students you will also be required to obtain a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. If you are successful, you will also need to complete these self-declaration forms on an annual basis for the duration of the course.

A Fitness to Practise information pack containing the relevant documents will be sent to you by the University of Sunderland once you hold a conditional firm offer with us. These forms are then reviewed alongside your application, and you must meet both the academic and fitness to practise requirements before you will be given an unconditional offer.

These checks enable us to make safer recruitment decisions by identifying candidates who may be unsuitable for certain activities including the nursing practice placements. The University will take into account current NMC regulations and do all it can to accommodate the needs of undergraduate adult nursing candidates who declare a specific learning difficulty.

In addition, you will also be required to attend a full occupational health screening.

If English is not your first language, please see our English language requirements.

For April 2020 entry:

Please use one of the following UCAS codes when applying:

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust B7S1
Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust B7S3

For September 2020 entry:

Please apply via UCAS using the UCAS code B7S5. At interview, you will be asked to rank your preferred Trust, which will then be confirmed once you start the course.

Fees and finance

The full-time annual fee for this course is:

£9,250 if you are from the UK or EU

Please note we are not presently accepting international applicants for this course.

If you are not sure whether you qualify as a UK, EU or international student, find out more in our Help and Advice article.

If you currently serve (or have recently served) within the Armed Forces, then the Ministry of Defence's ELCAS scheme may be able to help cover your funding for this course. For more information, see our Funding for Armed Forces personnel page.

Take a look at the Your Finances area to find out about the scholarships and bursaries that may be available to you.

Use our scholarships calculator to see what you may be entitled to.

Scholarships calculator

This information was correct at the time of publication.

Employment

Successful completion of the course will lead to registration with the NMC as a qualified mental health nurse, enabling you to apply for graduate mental health nursing posts available within the NHS, voluntary and private sector services in the UK.

Career options

One in four people will suffer from a mental illness at some point in their lives. Mental health nurses are the largest professional group providing care in a variety of settings. Mental health nurses work in a range of complex and rewarding roles such as crisis teams, street triage, community mental health teams, psychological therapies and specialist treatment teams.

Upon qualifying, mental health nurses can start on an NHS Band 5 (£22,128) and have the opportunity for career progression to more advanced roles such as an Approved Clinician which can attract Band 8 salaries (£47,092 - £56,665).

Placements

The NMC requires that all graduate nursing courses consist of a balance of 50:50 of theoretical university-based learning and clinical placements, which will be within the partnering NHS organisations associated with this course. At all levels of the course, you will undertake unpaid clinical placements in hospitals and the community. The placements occur in blocks of varying duration, there are two blocks in year 1 and three blocks in years 2 and 3. You will undertake your placements at one of our partner trusts: Northumberland, Tyne and Wear Foundation Trust and Tees, Esk and Wear Foundation Trusts. During your placements, you will be assigned a Clinical Mentor who will directly supervise you as well as acting as a means of support and guidance. As you may be expected to travel long distances, start your shift in the early hours, or finish your shift late at night, you could be entitled to Travel and Dual Accommodation Expenses (TDAE) which allows you to make a retrospective claim for excess travel costs and/or expenses for temporary accommodation near to the location of your placement. Find out more from the Learning Support Fund (LSF).

Meet the students

The facilities are very good, so it is the perfect learning environment.

Jonathon Swales
The support and encouragement that you get from staff is second to none.

Nichola Laidler

Meet the team

Related courses

Contact

Contact the Student Helpline for further information about studying at the University of Sunderland:

0191 515 3000

student.helpline@sunderland.ac.uk

View Programme Specifications for the Faculty of Health Sciences and Wellbeing.

Page last updated: 07 February 2020

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