MENTAL HEALTH NURSING - MSC at Keele University

If you're a highly motivated graduate with care experience who wishes to become a registered mental health nurse and gain an MSc in an accelerated two year timeframe, the MSc Nursing graduate entry programme is perfect for you. 

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) introduced new educational standards, which identified the importance of parity between mental health and physical health care (NMC, 2018a). The Mental health nursing field welcomes this and recognises that the lifespan of people with mental health problems is shorter compared to the general population (DH, 2011; Nash, 2010). The mental health field will develop a nurse who is culturally competent, empowered and able to work in partnership with service users, their families and the wider community.

The programme builds your academic skill sets, professional responsibility and technical complexity related to patient care throughout the two years. Successful completion of this innovative programme will ensure you will meet the registration requirements of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

The programme meets the NMC standards for pre-registration nursing education. The NMC (2018a) reviewed their standards with the publication of ‘Future Nurse: Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses’ and this programme reflects the comprehensive range of subject knowledge, clinical skills and leadership required of the registered Nurse from September 2020. This programme also meets the requirements of the Higher Education (HE) quality standards. Quality Academic Assurance Standards (QAA) are also met through the Frameworks for HE qualifications of UK degree-awarding bodies (QAA, 2014), and the Higher Education Credit Framework for England (QAA, 2008). 

The Keele ‘Future Nurse’ MSc Nursing programme has been designed to meet the seven NMC platforms, which underpin pre-registration nursing education (NMC, 2018a). These require you, regardless of your chosen field, to demonstrate core knowledge, skills, standards, behaviours to meet people’s needs, as well as field-specific knowledge and skills as required in either adult, children’s, learning disability or mental health nursing.  Two NMC annexes (A and B) detail extensive communication skills and clinical procedures, which are also included in the programme: