Nursing

Mental Health Nursing is a professional discipline dedicated to the care and support of people experiencing mental health conditions, from anxiety and depression to psychosis, eating disorders, personality disorders, and acute mental health crises. Mental health nurses work across a wide range of settings, including inpatient wards, community mental health teams, crisis services, and specialist units, building therapeutic relationships with service users and contributing to assessment, care planning, and recovery-focused practice.

At Sheffield Hallam University, this three-year, full-time programme includes a foundation year that provides a supported entry point for students who would benefit from additional preparation before entering the professional nursing curriculum. You will develop the clinical knowledge, practical skills, and reflective practice that mental health nursing demands, considering how health, illness, and recovery interact and how the relationship between healthcare professionals and service users shapes outcomes. The programme combines academic study with substantial supervised clinical placements, giving you real experience across a range of mental health settings throughout your training.

Graduating from this programme makes you eligible for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as a mental health nurse, permitting practice across the full range of settings in which the specialism operates. Mental health is one of the areas of greatest need in the UK healthcare system, and registered mental health nurses are consistently in demand in NHS trusts, independent providers, and the third sector. Many graduates develop specialist expertise in areas such as crisis intervention, liaison psychiatry, forensic mental health, addiction, and perinatal mental health.

Postgraduate study and continuing professional development are strongly supported within the profession, opening routes to advanced practice, education, management, and research.