Nursing (Mental Health)

Please note that advanced entry is not available on any of our Pre-Registration Nursing Programmes at this time.

Mental health nursing is a challenging but rewarding field. As a qualified mental health nurse, you’ll identify people’s needs before planning and providing care. Working closely with clients and patients, you’ll encourage them to believe that recovery from mental health problems is possible.

Studying in Cambridge or Chelmsford, our Mental Health Nursing BSc (Hons) degree will equip you with all the practical skills you need to start your nursing career.

Student nurses can take advantage of nursing training grants worth at least £5,000 per year.

At ARU, we’re dedicated to the continual improvement of every aspect of healthcare and delivering the values set out in the NHS Constitution.

Our Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Mental Health Nursing degree mixes classroom learning in our clinical facilities with practical placements. We will consider the experiences of people with mental health issues from different age groups, cultures, belief systems and ethnicities. We’ll also look at the experiences of carers and care-givers; and learn how the law – including human rights legislation – affects the management of mental health.

Biological, psychological and social factors can all have an impact on mental health and illness. Our understanding of causes and ‘triggers’ is changing all the time, so we’ll keep up to date with the latest knowledge – as well as the different interventions used to help people. Since mental health nursing is very much about connecting with people, you’ll also enhance your ‘softer’ communication and people skills. As people with mental health issues may also have physical health conditions, we’ll prepare you to offer advice to aid prevention.

Most mental health nurses work in the community, but some provide in-patient care. Either way, it’s standard practice to work as part of a team of health and care professionals. As part of your studies, you’ll develop your team working skills and gain practical experience in mental health settings, both in the community and in hospital.

While on placement, you’ll work shifts with your supervisors and assessors, taking part in late, early and night shifts and will work at weekends and on bank holidays. There’s also the option of a self-funded overseas placement at the end of Year 2.

We want to make sure you experience a variety of placements and that you graduate as an effective practitioner. Our placement maps will help you plan your travel before you start on the course. Meanwhile, teaching on campus usually takes place between 9am–5pm, Monday–Friday.

We’re proud to have been shortlisted for Nurse Education Provider of the Year in 2019 and 2020 by the Student Nursing Times. It speaks volumes about the quality of our teaching.

At ARU, you’ll be supported from day one with wellbeing services, money advice and careers guidance to help you through university and beyond.

Their courses are built around the skills and experience employers value. ARU are proud to be in the top 20% of UK universities for teaching quality (TEF 2023), and ranked #1 in the East of England, and #8 in the UK, for UG graduates in senior roles 15 months after gradudation (Graduate Outcomes Survey 2025). You'll have access to fantastic facilities thanks to £95m of investment - think SuperLabs, TV studios, law courts, mock hospital wards, gaming studios and more.

Wherever you're heading, ARU will help you get there.