Mental Health Nursing

Highlights

Receive full tuition fee support via NHS Wales plus £1,000 living cost support when you commit to work in Wales for two years after graduation. Additional support is available for those who study bilingually, strengthening health services in Welsh communities. The course combines classroom learning with clinical placements across North Wales, giving you exposure to forensic settings, substance misuse services, prisons, psychiatric units and community mental health teams - putting your learning into action where it matters most.

Learn in a research-informed environment where cutting-edge mental health research from Bangor shapes what you study and how you deliver care, preparing you to bring evidence into your professional practice. Train in high-fidelity simulation and clinical skills facilities - from mock wards and community flats to VR suites - so you can practise real scenarios in a safe environment before stepping into practice. Work as part of a multidisciplinary team supporting people on their recovery journeys, empowering individuals toward wellness and helping communities thrive - all while developing your leadership, clinical judgment and person-centred care skills.

Course overview

To be a mental health nurse requires patience, resilience and compassion. You’ll be caring for people of all ages when they’re at their most vulnerable, suffering from a range of mental health issues. You will support and provide evidence-based interventions to an individual to meet their physical, mental, social and spiritual needs.

Validated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), our Bachelor of Mental Health Nursing (BN) prepares you to become professional, caring and competent nurse, who prioritises patient needs. It blends wide-ranging clinical placements* with research based theory and supported clinical skills training featuring virtual technologies, which enable you to practice skills in a supported environment. Spending half of your time on placement in Wales instils the importance of being part of a wider healthcare team, where you are supported by designated placement link tutors to support you to develop your clinical skills.

You’ll also have the chance to reflect on what you learn with our own enthusiastic and experienced staff. The teaching team for the BN Nursing Mental Health programme has a wealth and range of experience across the lifespan to share with you during your on campus taught sessions. Our mental health nursing students tell us that this degree has changed the way they not only view people, but also society at large.

They see it as a privilege to work with and see the positive changes in people who are learning to live with anything from personality disorders and psychosis to suicidal thoughts or substance misuse. Clinical placements* in Wales enable you (subject to availability) to experience a wide range of community and inpatient-based mental health services for children, adolescents, adults and older people. Diverse settings could include, for example, community, residential, public, private and independent hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and forensic medium secure hospitals.

You will work as part of an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary team along side nurses, social workers, prison officers and consultants for example. You may be working with people who are receiving home treatment, in rehabilitation services and step down recovery services. You may also have opportunity to work in perinatal mental health services, memory support services and substance misuse and detoxification services.

From the outset, clinical skills training builds the skills required to become a professional registered nurse. Our simulation-based training equipment, using VR and lifelike manikins, lets you safely examine ‘patients’ and interact in real-time to clinical situations based on real-life examples. This prepares you for the realities of working and responding to such situations…