MSc Nursing (Mental Health)

Why choose Herts?

NMC Accreditation: You will be eligible to enter the Nursing and Midwifery Council Professional Register to legally practice as a Mental Health Nurse.

Work-Related Learning: Gain 50% theory and 50% placement practice. Students work in placements at NHS Trusts, and within clinical and community healthcare settings, addiction services, and children's services.

Employment Opportunities: Graduates are working as Community Mental Health Nurses, Crisis Nurses, and Consultant Nurses in hospitals, community practice, individuals’ homes, and rehabilitation units.

This course is up for review
To ensure this course continues to be cutting-edge and enables you to be ready for the modern workplace, it is due to be reviewed by March 2025.

Our website will typically be updated within a month of the review confirming any enhancements, including:
- module titles (and whether they are core or optional)
- expected contact hours
- assessment methods
- staff teaching on the course

A first degree at Honours level, normally, in a related discipline (life sciences, psychology or the social/ behavioural sciences). Graduate attributes associated with learning and research skills will normally be expected.
GCSE mathematics and English at grade C or above (or equivalent).

All offers will be subject to the applicants 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.

English language requirements

All students from non-majority English speaking countries require proof of English language proficiency.

IELTS

International qualifications will be considered for equivalency using NARIC. International candidates will be required to complete IELTS with scores of at least 6.5 in the listening and reading sections and at least 6.5 in the writing and speaking sections and the overall average score must be 6.5 or above.


Institution code	H36
School of study	School of Health and Social Work
Course length	Full Time, 2 Years
Location	University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield

Employability

Careers

The course entitles you to apply for register 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 different mental health fields a registered nurse can work and some mental health nursing roles 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. Care, compassion and kindness are that center of safe, effective and personalised care and which future careers are realistic options for an individual depends on their interests, level of education and experience.

Work placement

Practice placements are organised within neighbouring NHS Trusts in Hertfordshire and North London and in other settings including the private and voluntary sectors. There is the opportunity to learn with and from people in the community and in hospitals where mental health nursing is delivered. The placement experiences are wide and varied. An elective/alternative placement is offered at the end of the second year which gives you the opportunity to gain mental health experience elsewhere in the UK, abroad, or in specialised regional and national centres of excellence.

Professional Accreditations

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

About the course

As a mental health nurse you will work in partnership with individuals experiencing mental health difficulties from a wide range of backgrounds and age-groups.

Approximately 25% of the population are thought to experience some form of mental health problem at any given time.

Mental health nurses are the largest profession working in mental health.

You will draw on a core set of values that inform every aspect of your practice. You will learn to:

Respect individuals affected by mental health problems
Value the aspirations of the individual
Offer meaningful choices in evidence based interventions and care
Adopt a positive attitude to change and support social inclusion

50% of your time will be spent in classroom based learning and 50% will be spent on placements in clinical settings such as hospitals and community. Your placements and classroom studies will alternate in blocks of several weeks.

You will develop the complex range of competencies required to become a skilled mental health nurse.

Please download some further important information about the course

Why choose this course?

92% Overall Satisfaction for Medicine and Dentistry in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES, 2024).

Mental Health nurses have a vital and challenging role in establishing therapeutic relationships with individuals who experience mental health problems. Including:

Providing support to families, relatives and carers
Responding to changing needs
Promoting mental and physical health recovery and general wellbeing

This highly specialised branch of nursing focuses on caring and supporting individuals of all age groups suffering from mental problems or mental distress in different care settings including:

Individuals’ Homes
Inpatient
Outpatient
General hospitals
Community and rehabilitation units

You will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team including GPs psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, occupational therapists, arts therapists and healthcare assistants.

The University of Hertfordshire was ranked 2nd in the East of England for Nursing (2023 Complete University Guide).

What will I study?

Your time will be split equally (50/50) between classroom based learning and practical placements. You will have the opportunity to link practical experience to theoretical learning and vice versa.

During your placements you will undertake:

Supervised practice - working with qualified nurses to develop clinical skills
Training and education activities within the placement setting
Skills development activities to ensure patients' needs are met

Your time at the University will be spent in:

standard lectures
seminars
tutorials
laboratories
case studies
individual and group projects

In your final year you will normally have the opportunity to hone your independent study and interpersonal skills by undertaking a major project or dissertation.

Level 6

Module	Credits	Compulsory/optional
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 embrace a research informed teaching and active learning approach.

Level 7

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 benefit patient/service users. The justification for inclusion of inter-professional working within health care will be 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.
Nursing Art and Science	30 Credits	Compulsory
Using a range of approaches, including simulated practice learning for the achievement of Part 2 ePAD proficiencies, this module is designed to introduce the student to the societal, economic, and political determinants of health and health behaviours. Attention will be paid to the role of health policy and research underpinning public health interventions. The tenets of safe drug administration will also be explored.
Medicines Management for Mental Health Nursing	15 Credits	Compulsory
This module will equip students develop their knowledge, competence, critical understanding and skills related to medicines used in mental health, including applying this in their practice and general understanding of mental health. It will provide an invaluable grounding or preparation for those considering Independent and Supplementary prescribing programmes beyond registration.
Leading and Managing Mental Health Nursing	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module will actively develop the management and leadership skills of the mental health nursing student. Students will further 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 detailed and critical understanding of the scaffolding between learning outcomes addressed within Parts 1 and 2 practice modules, in line with practice learning detailed within the Practice Assessment Document (PAD). Reflection will also form part of this modular content.
Imagination and Innovation in Evidence Based Nursing Practice	30 Credits	Compulsory
Students will be supported to create an evidence-based proposal to effect positive change in service delivery. The module will ask students to develop and employ their knowledge of evidence-based practice, their skills of research and inquiry, and project management in adopting a rigorous approach to the project design and organisation.
Final Numeracy Exam	0 Credits	Compulsory
This 0-credit level 7 cross field module will use online based teaching to enable the student to develop knowledge of the formulae used for calculating medication dosages for both enteral and parenteral medicine administration and to demonstrate their skills of arithmetic fundamental to safe nursing care and practice.
Research and the Evidence Base for Mental Health Nursing	30 Credits	Compulsory
This module focuses on research and the evidence base, and its impact on mental health nursing. Students will acquire skills to systematically conduct literature search while recognising the multidisciplinary stakeholder contribution to research and acknowledging centrality of service users and carers in the research agenda through emancipatory and participatory approaches.
Fundamentals of Nursing Practice	30 Credits	Compulsory
The module enhances the students' abilities to respond to many care needs using appropriate assessment tools and simulated practice learning (SPL). Current evidence and research underpinning risk assessment strategies for promoting patient safety will be used to explore both the value of risk assessment tools and their underline evidence base.

Further course information

Course fact sheets
MSc Nursing (Mental Health)	Download
MSc Nursing (Mental Health)	Download

Programme specifications
MSc Nursing (Mental Health)	Download
MSc Nursing (Mental Health)	Download

Additional information
Sandwich placement or study abroad year	n/a
Applications open to international and EU students	Yes

Student experience

At the University of Hertfordshire, we want to make sure your time studying with us is as stress-free and rewarding as possible. We offer a range of support services including; student wellbeing, academic support, accommodation and childcare to ensure that you make the most of your time at Herts and can focus on studying and having fun.

Find out about how we support our students

You can also read our student blogs to find out about life at Herts.

Funding and fees
Other financial support

Find out more about other financial support available to UK and EU students

Fees 2025
UK Students
Full time
- £9535 for the 2025/2026 academic year
EU Students
Full time
- £18800 for the 2025/2026 academic year
International Students
Full time
- £18800 for the 2025/2026 academic year
"The Department of Health and Social Care has now confirmed that from August 2018 this course will be eligible for tuition fee and maintenance loans via Student Finance England. The loan will support your studies and enable you to start a rewarding career in mental health nursing. Therefore, if you already hold a degree or have previous study you will still be eligible to access the full package of funding. Once you complete this course, from the April following your graduation you will be eligible to make repayments to the total loan balance, but only once you are earning over the threshold. Although the loans are separate they are added together to make the total loan balance after your graduation. In effect, the monthly repayment remains the same as it would have been with just an undergraduate loan"

*Tuition fees are charged annually. The fees quoted above are for the specified year(s) only. Fees may be higher in future years, for both new and continuing students. Please see the University's Fees and Finance Policy (and in particular the section headed "When tuition fees change"), for further information about when and by how much the University may increase its fees for future years.

View detailed information about tuition fees

Living costs / accommodation

The University of Hertfordshire offers a great choice of student accommodation, on campus or nearby in the local area, to suit every student budget.

View detailed information about our accommodation

Read more about additional fees in the course fact sheet
How to apply

2025
Start Date End Date Year Location Link
09/09/2025 30/09/2026 1 UH Hatfield Campus Apply online (Full Time)
2026
Start Date End Date Year Location Link
09/09/2026 30/09/2027 1 UH Hatfield Campus Apply online (Full Time)

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MSc Nursing (Mental Health)

NHS Learning Support Fund

Why choose Herts?

English language requirements

Careers

Work placement

Professional Accreditations

About the course

Why choose this course?

What will I study?

Further course information

Student experience

Student Blogs

Other financial support

Fees 2025

UK Students

Full time

EU Students

Full time

International Students

Full time

Living costs / accommodation

2025

2026