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Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship (Mental Health)


Institution code	H36
School of study	School of Health and Social Work
Course length	Full Time, 3 Years
Location	University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Entry requirements

UCAS points A Level BTEC
104 BCC DMM: In a Science or health-related subject

Additional requirements

The normal entry requirements for the programme are:
A Levels: at least 104 UCAS tariff points that include 2 A Levels.
Or
BTEC Diploma: 104 (equivalent tariff, depending on field) in a Science or health-related subject.
BTEC National Certificate: 104 (equivalent tariff, depending on field) in a Science or health-related subject.
Access to Nursing Course: 104 (equivalent tariff).
GCSE: grade C/4 or above (or equivalent), to include English and Mathematics. Science is required for some fields.
Shortened APL routes
The normal entry requirements for this route are:
English and Mathematics GCSE grade C/4 or equivalent.
The completion of a foundation degree in health care achieved while working as a health care assistant/support worker or an equivalent academic qualification and/or relevant practice experience.
Successful accreditation of any prior learning and/or practice experience against the current programme outcomes.
All offers will be subject to the applicant's demonstration of the NHS constitution's 'Values and Behaviours', satisfactory interviews, numeracy and literacy test, health screening and the Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) checks. You can view the full NHS Constitution for England on the Government website.

UCAS points	A Level	BTEC
104	BCC	DMM: In a Science or health-related subject

About the course

Apprenticeship Standard: Registered Nurse

Final Award: BSc (Hons) Nursing

Nurses are the largest profession working in mental health services. With a quarter of the population thought to have some form of mental health issues, it's clear that nurses have an essential role in supporting people. As a mental health nurse, you’ll have the vital and challenging role of establishing therapeutic relationships with individuals from a wide range of backgrounds and age groups. This pre-registration course gives you the essential skills to make evidence-based interventions and provide care, while respecting and valuing the aspirations of individuals with mental health challenges.

A career as a Nurse means working with a variety of service users, families and carers, and with a range of health and care professionals and other agencies, to give care, advice and support to sick, injured or disabled people.

This programme enables apprentices to develop a set of core skills and knowledge, with specialisms in adult nursing, children’s nursing, mental health and learning disabilities. Apprentices are able to choose their preference.

Why choose this course?

Mental Health Nursing is a highly skilled, rewarding and caring profession where you can make a real difference to people’s lives.
Gain a well rounded understanding of all factions of the nursing profession, whilst being able to specialise in your chosen field and develop your critical, analytical and reflective skills.
Graduates of this programme will be entitled to apply to enter the professional register of the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the field of Mental Health.
Those who have successfully completed a Level 5 qualification in nursing (or a related subject), are eligible to undertake a two year top up version of this Level 6 qualification, through Accredited Prior Learning (APL).

Level 4

Module	Credits	Compulsory/optional
An Introduction to Interprofessional Education	15 Credits	Compulsory
The module is designed to give students the opportunity to work in multi-professional groups in order to improve understanding of a range of professional roles and encourage co-operative learning and working. The rationale for and benefits of inter-professional working are explored. Learning will be through multi-professional group seminars and tutorials that require students to access and gather appropriate data from a range of sources and apply this to a series of practice-based, simulated scenarios and exercises
Key Concepts, Theories and Debates for Mental Health Nursing	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module will provide an opportunity for students to investigate a range of supporting theoretical and policy perspectives on the nature of mental health, mental illness and wellbeing. Students will explore how contributions from psychology, sociology and philosophy inform our understanding of the evolving, contested and constructed notions of mental health, mental illness and mental wellbeing. The historical, present and future role of key players in mental health; the historical, current and future place of biological science and physical treatments in mental health; the user, the family the community - will be addressed. Students will be encouraged to explore notions of stigma, exclusion and discrimination and its impact on mental health. The module will be delivered using a mixture of experiential learning methods designed to actively students in learning. Blended learning strategies will be employed throughout.
Communication and Relationship Management Skills for Nursing	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module seeks to enable students to actively learn how to build upon their existing communication skills and to explore theories around communication that are relevant to nurses from all fields and in all nursing situations. The module will provide opportunities for students to discuss and develop essential communication skills. Students will develop their skills in searching and evaluating the appropriate literature to aid and underpin all aspects of their communication and develop their academic approaches. Therefore the module will provide active learning opportunities for students to develop critical reading and writing skills so that students can formulate and communicate scholarly arguments and ideas. Issues including consent, equality and diversity, and confidentiality around communication will be addressed so students can apply this to future placement areas.
Therapeutic Communication for Mental Health	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module seeks to enable students to actively learn how to build upon their empathetic and therapeutic communication skills so that they can effectively engage with a range of service users, families and carers in different therapeutic situations. Students will learn about counselling skills and therapeutic interactions that can be used to support service user engagement and recovery. Issues of cultural competence in communication will be considered. The module will provide active learning opportunities for students to explore scholarly and grey literature around communication to allow them to broaden their understanding of this area. Inquiry based learning will support students develop an awareness of how and when they can safely and effectively apply therapeutic skills in mental health nursing practice.
Foundations of Health and Wellbeing	30 Credits	Compulsory
This 30-credit, level 4 module aims to introduce the students to the fundamental bioscientific and professional issues that underpin nursing practice. Half of the module is dedicated to the biological concepts that inform nursing practice, while the remainder concentrates on the professional context of nursing practice, concepts of health and wellbeing and the social, political and economic context of health and wellbeing. Towards the end of the module students will be expected to explain and rationalise a best practice assessment of the health and wellbeing of an individual and demonstrate an understanding of bioscientific principles, professional issues and socio-political influences of health.
Mental Health Nursing Practice 1	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module will enable students explore their learning and progression as they begin their journey of becoming a registered mental health nurse. Action learning sets will facilitate inquiry skills and solution building through experiential learning enabling exploration of practice-based experience encompassing individual, pairs and group work activities. This experiential process will link directly to the corresponding theoretical modules being delivered along with the practice assessment. Notions of "therapeutic use of self" will be addressed in this module and so students will embark on reflective and experiential learning experiences in order to develop their self-awareness. In turn, this will aid capability in recognising and valuing difference and diversity in self and others. The content should also give the student a sense of professional identity to the developing mental health nurse, working within multi professional teams and in partnership with service users, their carers and families.

Level 5

Module	Credits	Compulsory/optional
Developing Health and Wellbeing	30 Credits	Compulsory
This 30-credit, level 5 module aims to build on the knowledge acquired in Fundamentals of Health and Wellbeing. While the focus on the professional aspects of nursing practice, ideas of health and wellbeing and the social and political context of health and wellbeing continue, the focus on bioscience shifts to the pharmacological aspects of health and wellbeing. The proportion of time dedicated to the topic areas also changes with greater input into ideas of health and wellbeing and the social, political and economic context of care. The subject matter is more intellectually challenging, with a focus on application of knowledge to nursing practice. Students will be able to describe the assessment of the health and wellbeing of an individual and demonstrate an understanding of the socio-political issues that influence their decisions.
Essentials of Mental Health Nursing	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module seeks to enable students to develop their understanding of person-centred, compassionate and recovery-focused mental health nursing practice, through the use of evidence-based research and the analysis of theoretical constructs, perspectives and models of practice. It will help students build upon key professional and ethical principles that support safe interventions in all tiers of mental health service provision. It will provide opportunities for students to critically reflect on the Mental Health Act and the impact this and other legislation has on service user lived experience. Students will learn how to collaboratively work with patients to enhance the effectiveness of mental health nursing care plans through shared decision making. The module will embrace a research informed teaching and active learning approach, providing students with an opportunity to share and discuss research related to the Essentials of Mental Health Nursing Practice.
Research and the Evidence Base for Mental Health Nursing	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module focuses on research and evidence as well as its potential impact on mental health nursing. Students will develop ability to access and systematically search the literature from a range of sources, recognising the multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder contribution to research. A key focus of this module is recognition of the centrality of users and carers in the research agenda and how their engagement is shaping the conduct and output generated by research. The module will support students develop their inquiry skills and values. It aims to equip them with knowledge, skills and understanding of research and related evidence to inform their practice. Students will be introduced to research methods, processes and issues that positions them as active consumers of, and potential partners in, research. Students will participate in interactive activities specifically designed to enable them to understand research issues. Student led journal clubs will feature prominently in module delivery.
Mental Health Nursing Practice 2	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module helps students build on knowledge and capability developed in year one. It will facilitate an awareness of the correlation between learning outcomes addressed within Year Two modules, as well as learning detailed within the Practice Assessment Document (PAD). It will provide students with an opportunity to apply own learning to the provision of inclusive person-centred recovery-oriented mental health nursing. There will be a focus on the evidence base and the theoretical underpinning necessary to promote physical, mental health and well-being for people who use mental health nursing services. Students will apply this knowledge to undertake evidence-based recovery focused person-centred assessment, formulation, risk management and care planning Students will be encouraged to use reflective processes and frameworks to make sense of practice experiences and to further develop own values, skills and knowledge. The module will provide students opportunities to explore cultural competence and inclusive mental health nursing practice.

Level 6

Module	Credits	Compulsory/optional
Enhancing Health & Social Care through Inter-professional Education	15 Credits	Compulsory
The module is designed to give students further opportunities of working in multi-professional groups in order to improve understanding across professional boundaries and encourage collaborative learning and working that will bring benefit to patient/service-users. The justification for inclusion of inter-professional working within health care is addressed. The module requires students to bring specialist in-depth knowledge of their profession and professional codes of conduct to a group setting so that health and social care pathways are critically reviewed in the context of professional practice.
Imagination and Innovation in Evidence Based Nursing Practice	30 Credits	Compulsory
Students on this module will be supported to create an evidence-based proposal to effect positive change in service delivery. It represents an exciting opportunity for students to engage in a negotiated work-based practice project proposal that will encourage them to focus upon a practice issue of personal and professional interest. Students will be encouraged to explore this in an imaginative and innovative manner which may lead to new ways of improving practice for the benefit of service users from an individual, group or whole service perspective. The project is conceived as having the potential to be taken further by student in a role beyond registration, working within care/service teams. The module will call upon students to further develop and employ both their knowledge of evidence-based practice, their skills of research and inquiry and of project management in adopting a rigorous approach to the project design and organisation.
Medicines Management for Mental Health Nursing	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module will equip students provide active learning opportunities for students to develop critical understanding, awareness and skills related to medicines used within mental health care. The module will help students develop their knowledge and competence in medication management and enable them to explore and apply this knowledge both in their practice and general understanding of mental health. Students will explore challenging issues around medication in mental health, including the use of coerced and enforced medication and the place that race, ethnicity, gender and age plays in medication prescribing and administration. The module will also provide an invaluable grounding for those wishing to use this as a stand-alone learning, a stepping stone or as a preparation for those who are considering Independent and Supplementary prescribing programmes beyond registration.
Leading and Managing Mental Health Nursing Care	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module will actively develop the management and leadership skills of the mental health nursing student. Students will develop their skills of critical thinking in relation to key drivers and policies which influence mental health leadership. They will explore models of leadership and change management and in doing so they will develop the skills to work effectively with service users, family members, professionals and organisations. Students will continue to develop strategies to form resilience; for example, they will build their confidence to accept and manage uncertainty, whilst supporting and supervising junior colleagues. Students will consider how nurses provide leadership by acting as role models for best practice in the delivery of nursing care, they will consider how the can provide effective, constructive feedback to colleagues. The student-centred approach will utilise teaching, facilitation, peer feedback, problem-based learning and service user groups, staff from practice such as practitioners, PEFs and mentors.
Mental Health Nursing Practice 3	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module will facilitate a critical understanding of the correlation between learning outcomes addressed within year three modules, as well as learning detailed within the Practice Assessment Document (PAD). A key focus of this module is the role of reflection in relation to students own learning and ways in which the students supports the learning of others. The use of action learning sets will facilitate inquiry-based learning and solution building through experiential learning. Opportunities will be provided that enabling students to explore and make sense of practice-based experience. The module will provide students opportunities to explore issues related to discrimination and develop strategies to practise in an inclusive and culturally competent way. The module is informed by Future Nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses, (NMC 2018) and by the Mental Health Core Skills Education and Training Framework (Skills for Health, Health Education England and Skills for Care, 2016).
Final Numeracy Exam	0 Credits	Compulsory
Using both lecture based teaching and online resources this module intends to enable the student to develop knowledge of the formulae used for calculating medication dosages for both enteral and parenteral medicine administration.

Professional Accreditations

Entitlement to apply to enter the professional register of the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a Registered Nurse (Mental Health).

Careers

Following successful completion of the programme, apprentices will be entitled to apply for registration as a nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council in the Branch of Nursing in which they have specialised.

Areas in which apprentices can be employed include:

acute services within the NHS
a range of community settings including general or specialised community nursing
acute care or Hospice Care

What job can I get?

The course entitles you to apply for registration as a mental health nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. This opens up a range of fascinating and rewarding career options for both work and advancement in a variety of settings, such as hospitals, community practice, individuals’ homes and rehabilitation units. There are a variety of mental health fields a registered nurse can pursue a career in and these include; Staff Nurse, Community Mental Health Nurse, Crisis Nurse, Nurse Practitioners or Specialists, Modern Matrons and Consultant Nurse. Some individuals advance to become senior managers, researchers and educators.

100% of our mental health nursing students go on to employment or further study within 6 months of graduating.

Course fact sheets
BSc (Hons) Nursing (Mental Health) (Degree Apprenticeship)	Download

Programme specifications
BSc (Hons) Nursing (Mental Health) (Degree Apprenticeship)	Download

Additional information
Sandwich placement or study abroad year	n/a
Applications open to international and EU students	No

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