Nursing Science Registered Nurse (Mental Health) MSc
2 Years Full-Time | January Start
Option for Placement Year
Option for Study Abroad
International
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Option for Placement Year
Option for Study Abroad
Northumbria University has an established reputation for excellence and innovation in nursing education. We are working closely with our NHS partners to deliver a pre-registration Nursing Science Masters that embodies the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s ‘Future Nurse’ standards, to equip you to lead your profession.
This two-year Masters will allow graduates from any undergraduate subject to build on their experience in a caring role, and graduate with NMC Registration. Studying within the requirements of the new NMC standards means that you will be prepared for rapid career progression in mental health nursing, especially when combined with the high-level attributes that you will acquire as a Northumbria postgraduate.
You will study partially at our Coach Lane Campus, and partially on placement, with both strands running alongside each other to give you an integrated approach to theory and practice. You will study within the standard university semester system, allowing time during the Easter and summer breaks for additional projects and internships – or simply a well-earned rest.
This programme will equip you to be curious, creative and collaborative in your care. It will allow your compassion to thrive within an evidence-based approach. And it will enable you to make a genuine impact on the mental health and wellbeing of your clients and patients.
If you're looking for something else in nursing then take a look at our wide range of NHS Funded Nursing Courses and, our undergraduate courses include Learning Disability Nursing Science BSc (Hons).
Northumbria University has an established reputation for excellence and innovation in nursing education. We are working closely with our NHS partners to deliver a pre-registration Nursing Science Masters that embodies the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s ‘Future Nurse’ standards, to equip you to lead your profession.
This two-year Masters will allow graduates from any undergraduate subject to build on their experience in a caring role, and graduate with NMC Registration. Studying within the requirements of the new NMC standards means that you will be prepared for rapid career progression in mental health nursing, especially when combined with the high-level attributes that you will acquire as a Northumbria postgraduate.
You will study partially at our Coach Lane Campus, and partially on placement, with both strands running alongside each other to give you an integrated approach to theory and practice. You will study within the standard university semester system, allowing time during the Easter and summer breaks for additional projects and internships – or simply a well-earned rest.
This programme will equip you to be curious, creative and collaborative in your care. It will allow your compassion to thrive within an evidence-based approach. And it will enable you to make a genuine impact on the mental health and wellbeing of your clients and patients.
If you're looking for something else in nursing then take a look at our wide range of NHS Funded Nursing Courses and, our undergraduate courses include Learning Disability Nursing Science BSc (Hons).
Level of Study
Postgraduate
Mode of Study
2 years Full Time
Department
Nursing, Midwifery & Health
Location
Coach Lane Campus, Northumbria University
City
Newcastle
Start
January 2025
Fees
Fee Information
Modules
Module Information
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EXPLORE NURSING AT NORTHUMBRIA
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Malcolm Guilding gives an introduction into a mature nursing student life at Northumbria University. Watch Chief Executive Officer of the International Council of Nurses and recent honorary degree recipient, Howard Catton, as he visits our healthcare facilities and discovers the benefits of studying Nursing at Northumbria.
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Our concept-based approach will allow you to build the complexity of your understanding gradually over the course of your studies. It will encourage you to question and think critically, establishing a healthy learning habit that will last throughout your career.
Your learning experience will be enhanced by the use of innovative technology – all lectures will be delivered electronically, so that you can get the most out of your time with staff during seminars, discussion groups and practical sessions. This will also encourage you to develop excellent communication and interpersonal skills, which you can use in your delivery of safe, effective and compassionate care.
In addition, we’ll use the supported online learning environment to enhance your digital skills within practice, and to help you understand and promote the use of digital technology as a solution within care settings.
Your assessments will be balanced between theory and practice, with essays evenly spaced through the year. Your supervision and assessment on placement will be extremely supportive, based on a model designed in collaboration with our partnership organisations, and will be structured to encourage you to develop the necessary proficiencies at the highest level.
Take a look at what Northumbria has to offer and discover what studying with us can do for you.
You’ll benefit from our Personal Tutor system, Learning Leaders programme, and close partnership working with Practice Supervisors and Assessors, all of which play a part in ensuring you meet University and NMC expectations. We will all coach you towards independent learning and personal and professional achievements, as you journey towards graduation and registration.
Carol Morgan RNLD, RHV, BSc (Hons) Nursing, BSc (Hons) SCPHN, PGCAP, FHEA. PhD candidate is an Assistant Professor of Nursing Science Registered Nurse (Learning Disability) and is an expert within her field. She has co-written an article ‘Introductory Guide For Someone Considering A Career In Learning Disability Nursing’.
Michael Kelleher
Programme Leader
Dr Sarah Annesley
Senior Lecturer
Barry Hill
Senior Lecturer
Jane Douglas
Senior Lecturer
Take a look at what Northumbria has to offer and discover what studying with us can do for you.
Our innovative Clinical Skills Centre replicates a range of nursing environments and situations. Its virtual reality equipment, high fidelity Simulated Mannequins (SimMan and SimBaby), and immersive technologies will allow you to practise skills, challenge your learning and develop confidence in your clinical ability – all within a safe environment.
If you are an international student, you will have access to Academic Language Skills (ALS) sessions to help you develop your academic language, writing and study skills. These sessions will run throughout the course.
Department Facilities
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Academic Language Skills Programmes (ALS)
Our 24/7 University Library
Take a look at what Northumbria has to offer and discover what studying with us can do for you.
Research-rich learning will be embedded throughout the course, culminating in a dissertation that will allow you to explore a topic of your choice in significant depth. You will have the option to conduct an empirical study, undertaking hands-on research supported by tutors with specialist knowledge in that area.
Our academic staff have extensive research experience across nursing, midwifery and health, where our work informs policy and practice to improve quality, safety and effectiveness. Our areas of research strength include Ageing, Later Life & Long-term Conditions (ALL), Healthcare Organisation, Practice Improvement & Economics (HOPE), and Healthcare Education and Learning for Practice and Patient Safety (HELPPS).
Current Research Themes
Department of Nursing, Midwifery & Health
Multidisciplinary Research
How do we support people with long-term health conditions?
Take a look at what Northumbria has to offer and discover what studying with us can do for you.
The NMC’s ‘Future Nurse’ change programme seeks to drive forward changes in the profession, and we have embedded research, leadership and advanced practice strands throughout the course to equip you to play a key role in those future developments.
You will graduate as an accountable professional who has the knowledge and skills to promote health and prevent ill health; assess, plan, provide, co-ordinate and evaluate care; lead and manage nursing care and work in teams; and improve safety and quality of care.
At Northumbria we have long-standing strong relationships with our partnership Trusts, and we have developed this new course in close collaboration with them as well as with a wide range of experts by experience. This will ensure that the course prepares you for practice in exactly the way employers are seeking, so that you benefit from our consistently high employment rates.
The course will also provide ideal preparation for further study at doctoral level.
Watch two of our lecturers discuss their own clinical experiences, and explore some of the opportunities available to you once you qualify as a Registered Nurse.
Take a look at what Northumbria has to offer and discover what studying with us can do for you.
Applicants should normally have:
A minimum of a 2:2 honours degree or equivalent in any subject, and GCSEs at Grade 4 (Grade C) or above in English Language and Mathematics.
Other subject qualifications, equivalent professional qualifications and/or relevant work experience will be considered on an individual basis.
Additional requirements:
Applicants will be required to attend an interview. Following interview, applicants will be asked to complete an RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) document to provide evidence of undertaking a minimum of 500 hours of occupational or voluntary care work, and a minimum of 700 hours of appropriate theoretical learning and understanding, which can be evidenced from a previous degree and practice.
Admission is subject to a suitable DBS Enhanced Certificate and a satisfactory health check. Applicants must meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council's suitability for registration requirements.
International qualifications:
If you have studied a non UK qualification, you can see how your qualifications compare to the standard entry criteria, by selecting the country that you received the qualification in, from our country pages. Visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/yourcountry
English language requirements:
International applicants should have a minimum overall IELTS (Academic) score of 7.0, with a minimum writing score of 6.5 and all other components at a minimum score of 7.0, or Occupational English Test (OET) with at least a grade B (350 to 440) in reading, listening and speaking, and at least a grade C+ (300 to 340) in writing.
For further admissions guidance and requirements, please visit www.northumbria.ac.uk/admissionsguidance Please review this information before submitting your application.
UK Fee in Year 1: £9,250
International Fee in Year 1: £18,250
Scholarships and Discounts
ADDITIONAL COSTS
You will be required to purchase a fob watch and suitable footwear for use in placement, which will cost approximately £80. You will need to pay for your own travel costs, which may be approximately £800 per year depending on your placement location. You may be eligible to claim reimbursement of travel costs from the NHS Business Authority. Up to date information relating to this can be found at: https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/student-services. If using a car to attend placement, you may also need to pay parking charges of approximately £200 per year. On completion of the programme you will be eligible to register with the Nursing Midwifery Council and the cost is approximately £120.
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Module information is indicative and is reviewed annually therefore may be subject to change. Applicants will be informed if there are any changes.
MH0714 -
Applied Life Science for Mental Health Nursing (20 Credits)
The content of Applied Life Sciences will be informed by the proficiency standards outlined in Annex A and B in ‘Future Nurse: Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses (NMC, 2018).
This module will introduce the concept of safe nursing practice, effective communication, medicine management, and the proficiencies of physical assessment. This module will be taught across the year aligned to your learning within MH0715 and MH0716 bringing together theory and practice to facilitate your development as a safe and effective practitioner. You will learn how to observe and assess people of all ages in terms of symptoms and signs of physical ill health. You will learn how to take, record, interpret a patient’s vital signs, and use communication tools to support verbal and written reports. An introduction to basic medicine calculation and management will also be part of your learning and will be underpinned by a digital educational resource. You will consider and develop fundamental nursing skills to act in a holistic, individualised, non-judgemental, and honest way, with integrity, and apply principles of The Code (NMC, 2018).
These skills and proficiencies will be supported by opportunities to participate in a variety of a blended approach teaching methods including face-to-face practical sessions, simulated education including standardised patients, human patient simulators, immersive interactive environments and partial task trainers. This will be underpinned by online learning resources contained within the BlackBoard Ultra site and digital educational resources. These dynamic learning opportunities will support you to develop knowledge and help you gather evidence, which will inform your attainment of your Ongoing Record of Achievement (ORA).
MH0715 -
Promoting Health and Preventing Ill Health in Mental Health Nursing (20 Credits)
Encouraging and supporting families regarding to lifestyle changes that could improve their health is an element of nursing that you will undertake in both community and hospital environments. You will be introduced to key concepts in contemporary public health promoting the health and wellbeing of children, young people, families and communities through the facilitation of health enhancing activities.
You will increase your knowledge and awareness of a range of strategies to support people across the lifespan in promoting health and preventing ill health. This will include a range of health promotion approaches and models and will develop your skills in promoting behaviour change in your professional practice. You will explore the relationship between the wider health determinants of health, wellbeing and health inequalities incorporating skills required to understand and undertake community profiling.
By building upon the skills and knowledge from concurrent modules you will be able to show resilience and tenacity within the often challenging situations faced with regard to health promotion in clinical practice. Through developing assessment and communication skills and enhanced evidence-based knowledge you will have a comprehensive and holistic approach to managing care in partnership with the people receiving it.
MH0716 -
Assessing and planning for complex on-going needs in Mental Health Nursing (20 Credits)
This module will enable you to learn about the nature of assessment and planning for ongoing care in mental health nursing specifically addressing the knowledge required to meet the proficiencies outlined in Platform 3: Assessing needs and planning care, in the NMC (2018) Future Nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses.You will be encouraged to critically explore contemporary theoretical perspectives and approaches, considering their application to the individualised needs of the person receiving care. Key concepts related to nursing models, research skills, independent learning will be addressed.
Central to contemporary mental health nursing practice is the notion of recovery. You will debate themes and principles crucial to recovery orientated practice, critically analysing approaches such as person-centered care; partnership working between the professional and individual receiving care; and collaborative partnerships with other professionals and agencies. How such approaches impact on shared decision making in relation to treatment options, assessment and the development of care plans will be a central theme of the module.
You will critically consider competing perspectives in relation to traditional models of care and more contemporary understandings. Utilising a strengths-based approach you will develop an understanding of humanistic inter-personal approaches to assessment and on-going care in exploring the nature of the helping relationship, developing a broad ranging perspective of the person within the context of their personal, social and environmental domains.
The module requires you to demonstrate your growing skills in academic research, through the appraisal of contemporary literature relating to people with complex care needs. The module explores the philosophical assumptions underpinning contemporary healthcare literature to select appropriate research findings to apply to current nursing practice.
NS0709 -
Nursing Practice Module 1: Becoming a Safe, Caring Professional (Adult) (Child) (Learning Disability) (Mental Health) (20 Credits)
This practice module will provide you with a unique opportunity to develop skills and knowledge directly relevant to your current practice placement experiences. The practice module will both support your learning while you are in practice and provide an environment, within university, to consolidate the skills and knowledge necessary to progress effectively. By using a concept curriculum approach, the nursing practice module will support you to learn how to become an accountable professional, lead and manage nursing care, and work in teams.
During the first year, you will learn the fundamental skills that are necessary for safe, effective and professional practice.
During the majority of your first year clinical placements you will return to university for two days a week to reflect on your experiences. You will learn together with your peers and examine theoretical concepts such as professionalism, interprofessional learning, medicines management and safeguarding that will enhance your practice. Seminars and workshops will focus on a range of subjects that will enhance your professional nursing practice. Innovative teaching and learning strategies will be used to enhance your learning, This will include the use of digital educational resources to support your learning in relation to concepts such as medicines management.
You will learn how to develop your Ongoing Record of Achievement (ORA) and how to reflect on your personal and professional development. You will learn about the importance of patient centred and recovery focussed approaches and will be asked to reflect on feedback given by Experts By Experience (EBE). These skills are the start of your development as an evidence-based practitioner.
RV7000 -
Academic Language Skills(ALS) for PG Nursing and Midwifery students (Core – for International and EU students only,0 Credits)
Academic skills when studying away from your home country can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.
The topics you will cover on the module include:
• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Presenting your ideas
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Developing self-reflection skills.
• Discussing ethical issues in research, and analysing results.
• Describing bias and limitations of research.
MH0717 -
Principles of Innovative Nursing Practice in Mental Health Nursing (20 Credits)
This module will consolidate the concepts and nursing interventions considered within the previous skills module in year one. You will develop an array of advanced nursing skills required for innovative practice within your chosen field of nursing, as you explore the care required and the impact this has upon those nursing interventions. You will continue to have the opportunity to practice such skills in a simulated clinical setting. You will bring your developed communication skills, as well as previous knowledge and experience, to learning advanced nursing interventions in support of your leadership and management placement and the requirements for being a new registrant.
These dynamic learning opportunities will help in gathering evidence and aid you in the completion of your professional portfolio, demonstrating that you are capable of independent practice and celebrating your achievements.
NS0710 -
Nursing Practice Module (2) Leadership, Quality and Team Work in Nursing Practice (Adult) (Child) (LD) (MH) (20 Credits)
This module, which is based in practice, will provide you with the opportunity to advance your skills and knowledge supported by year one practice placement experiences and prepare you for working life as a registered nurse. The module content will specifically focus on leadership, quality and team work, learning will be blended between recall days at the university and online via BlackBoard Ultra as we support your transition to be a registered nurse.
By using a concept curriculum approach, the nursing practice module will support you to become an accountable professional, working in teams to lead and manage quality nursing care. Within the context of your practice placements, you will critically reflect and debate contemporary theories and explore service improvement models, which support sustainable service improvement. Applying your knowledge of team and interprofessional working you will learn how to coordinate safe and effective high quality-care. This will include a collaborative approach embedding the views of service users, lay carers and colleagues in the delivery and enhancement of care. You will be provided opportunities to critically reflect on your own personal and professional responsibility for your continued development as a manager and future leader of service improvement. You will learn how to manage uncertainty and put into practice the strategies that develop resilience in yourself and others.
Through dynamic learning opportunities in practice you will gather evidence to aid completion of your North East Electronic Practice Assessment Document (NEEPAD). Through critical reflection and self-assessment you will complete your Ongoing Record of Achievement (ORA) demonstrating your capability and readiness for independent practice. This demonstrates to a future employer that you are fit to practise as a registered nurse caring for people of all ages and across all care settings.
NS0711 -
Developing Nursing Practice through Research (60 Credits)
This module will build directly on the proficiencies outlined in Platform 7: Coordinating care, in the NMC (2018) Future Nurse: Standards of proficiency for registered nurses. You will have the opportunity to apply principles of partnership, collaboration and interagency working to research and the development of a research idea. You will be encouraged to understand health legislation and current health and social care policies, which influence health research and research priorities. You will be provided with the principles of health economics as an area of health research and explore other areas and research methodologies. These areas of knowledge will be used to inform a dissertation designed to explore an area of challenge when providing safe, effective and person-centred nursing care for people of all ages. This is a year long module providing the time to develop a research topic, which reflects the complexities of providing mental, cognitive, behavioural and physical care in the clinical settings most relevant to your field of registration. You will have the opportunity to work alongside research staff, assess and direct the development of your research skills and present your research proposal in both written and verbal forms.
More informationOur Applicant Services team will be happy to help. They can be contacted on 0191 406 0901 or by using our Contact Form.
Full time Courses are primarily delivered via on-campus face to face learning but could include elements of online learning. Most courses run as planned and as promoted on our website and via our marketing materials, but if there are any substantial changes (as determined by the Competition and Markets Authority) to a course or there is the potential that course may be withdrawn, we will notify all affected applicants as soon as possible with advice and guidance regarding their options. It is also important to be aware that optional modules listed on course pages may be subject to change depending on uptake numbers each year.
Contact time is subject to increase or decrease in line with possible restrictions imposed by the government or the University in the interest of maintaining the health and safety and wellbeing of students, staff, and visitors if this is deemed necessary in future.
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