About Nursing: Mental Health Nursing in Canterbury Christ Church University

Mental health nurses play a crucial role in supporting people who are vulnerable (and often seriously ill) in hospitals and the community. If you want a career where you can make a difference to the lives of people in need of care and support, and where each day brings new challenges and experiences, Mental Health Nursing is a good choice.

The course equips you with the knowledge and skills you need to succeed, and enables you to be eligible to apply for registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

You will explore areas including:

• mental illness and mental health
• therapeutic interventions
• assessment and planning care
• service users’ perspectives on care
• evidence-based practice
• human biology and pharmacology.

Why Mental Health Nursing?

Mental health nursing is a diverse and dynamic profession working collaboratively with people experiencing a range of mental health and psychological problems, in a diverse range of settings. As well as being immensely rewarding, mental health nursing offers a range of career development and education options and the opportunity to specialise. In addition, a nursing qualification consistently provides the opportunity to work overseas. 

What will i study?

We are excited to be offering a newly designed Mental Health Nursing programme from September 2019, designed to reflect the rapidly evolving dimensions of the health and social care sector and the needs of the individual.

The programme is intended to equip you with the skills and knowledge you need to provide the best person centred, compassionate, evidenced based nursing care to service users with a range of psychological and mental health problems, in extensive and diverse environments. Your programme will also furnish you with the skills that you need to become reflective, robust and resilient and will lay the foundations of lifelong learning.

As a mental health nurse you will require a wide range of both theoretical and clinical knowledge to enable you to practice safely and effectively. In order to achieve this you will undertake five modules per year; a practice module, a clinical supervision module and three mental health nursing modules.

Theoretical modules will cover a variety of relevant subjects including law and ethics, professional issues, empathy, service users' experience of mental illness, anatomy and physiology, psychopharmacology, health promotion and working with people with learning disability and people with mental health and psychological problems. In the last stage of the programme, you will cover psychodynamic and systemic approaches to mental health and learn about specialist services and care. 

Building on our Faculty's extensive experience of interprofessional learning throughout the three years, you will also have the opportunity to work with other health and social care students within interprofessional education events. This will include both classroom based learning and simulated activities. Students from across the ten health and social care programmes will engage in shared learning as it applies to their profession to explore how interprofessional working improves outcomes for service users

Work experience

Practice placements are an integral part of the course and your programme will be divided equally between time spent in university studying, and time in a wide variety of acute, recovery and specialist placements, in hospital, community and forensic settings. During these practice experiences, you will work with children, adolescents, adults & older people with mental health and psychological problems and people with learning disabilities.

Academic qualification equivalents:

• Successful completion of standard 12 th with 60% average and one further year of study

English language requirements (one of the below):

• IELTS         :        6.0, with no less than 6.0 in Writing and no less than 5.5 in Reading, Speaking and Listening.
• TOEFL        :       Total minimum score of 80, with at least 19 in reading, writing and listening.
• PTE            :        overall score of 50 and no PTE communicative skills score below 42

Canterbury Christ Church University Highlights

Canterbury Christ Church University Tuition fee

Canterbury Christ Church University Living Cost

• The weekly living cost for an international student staying at a residential hall/flat/homestay is 384.50 NZD, 305.75 NZD, and 360 NZD, respectively.
• Application deadline for accommodation: December 1 (February intake); May 1 (June intake).