Nursing: Mental Health (PGDip)

Award
Postgraduate Diploma
Typical Offer
2:2 degree View full entry requirements
Duration
2 years
Course Type
Full-time
Campus
Highfield
Next course starts
September 2025

About this course

Develop the skills to become a partner in healthcare for people across society. On this graduate entry PGDip Mental Health Nursing you’ll learn to make complex decisions, evaluate practice, co-ordinate care and advocate for your patients' needs.

This postgraduate diploma in nursing is designed for graduates and career changers who want to make a tangible difference to health outcomes. Gain advanced clinical skills and work collaboratively with multidisciplinary specialists.

The course is also ideal if you’re already a qualified nurse and want a second field of registration. You'll join a community with a consistent global ranking for nursing and midwifery: third in the UK for Nursing (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024).

You'll carry out a mix of theoretical learning and practice hours which meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) requirements for registration as a nurse. Practice learning takes the form of multiple placements in a range of acute and community care settings.

You’ll gain essential practical experience and expert competencies during the placements to help you develop into the role of a nursing professional.

Theoretical modules cover:

  • professional nursing practice
  • fundamental aspects of care
  • global and public health
  • person centred nursing care
  • managing acute changes in health status
  • coordinating long-term care
  • influencing innovation and change

Developing critical thinking, reasoning and analytical skills are a big focus of your studies. You'll improve your leadership skills so that you can supervise, delegate and challenge practice in the future.

When you complete the diploma you’ll be eligible to register with the NMC as a Registered Nurse (Mental Health). You must apply to register within 5 years of completing your course.

After you've successfully completed the course you'll be able to ‘top up’ to a full MSc by completing a dissertation module.

Support for students with a disability/health condition

We are fully committed to supporting students with disabilities who wish to join programmes of study which require the acquisition and practice of professional competencies.

We offer students personal, informal advice by telephone, email or face to face, and we are happy to discuss your specific needs prior to you applying. This could include how your specific needs may impact on your ability to meet the clinical competencies. This will not affect your application in any way, but may help you to select the right programme for you.

Please contact the admissions team for further details.

We regularly review our courses to ensure and improve quality. This course may be revised as a result of this. Any revision will be balanced against the requirement that the student should receive the educational service expected. Find out why, when, and how we might make changes.

Our courses are regulated in England by the Office for Students (OfS).

Course lead

Dr Eloise Monger is a Lecturer in Nursing, a Registered General Nurse and Registered Nurse Teacher. She is an internationally recognised nurse educationalist with expertise in clinical skills and simulation, and has an extensive clinical background in intensive care nursing. Her research focuses on the use of technology in health care. She was the first nurse to be awarded a PhD affiliated to the Institute of Web Science. Visit Dr Monger's profile page to learn more about her research work.

Course location

This course is based at Highfield.

Awarding body

This qualification is awarded by the University of Southampton.