If you would like to gain the knowledge and skills to practise as a mental health nurse and develop your research skills, our Master of Mental Health Nursing is the ideal course for you. Offering opportunities to enhance your research capabilities and complete a small research project, the Masters prepares you to become a leader in advancing the discipline through scientific inquiry.

Developed with industry and lived experience academics, our mental health nursing courses are evidence-based and clinically relevant. Offered as part of a suite, the Master of Mental Health Nursing has a nested Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma. The first four units of the Masters make up the Graduate Certificate and allow you to build your skills and knowledge in undertaking mental health assessments, diagnostic formulations and risk assessments, along with psychotropic medication, and recovery. The next set of four units completes the Graduate Diploma and extends on the first four units with a focus on the provision of safe, person-centred, recovery-orientated mental health care. Particular attention is given to exploring a range of therapeutic interventions that you can use to enhance your practice. The last four units of the Masters, prepare you to practise and research within the specialist field of mental health nursing. You’ll extend your learning of therapeutic interventions that you can use, while you develop your research skills to undertake a research project that addresses an issue in mental health nursing practice. The assessments that you complete as you progress into the Graduate Diploma and Masters need you to be working in mental health so that you can employ your mental health nursing skills and apply your learnings to your own clinical practice.

You will study via our ultra-flexible Be Different learning platform giving you the freedom to structure your study in a way that suits you. Benefit from the flexibility to access course content on any device with internet access and have no assessment or unit deadline constraints, making it ideal for busy, self-motivated learners. The flexible nature of our Be Different courses also means that you have plenty of time to complete your studies. You have up to five years to complete the Masters.

Career Opportunities

The Master of Mental Health Nursing provides Registered Nurses with a mental health nursing specific high level post-graduate qualification. This qualification has the potential to create many exciting and rewarding opportunities for graduates including increased financial remuneration from some employers. Graduates will attain competency and confidence to be able to undertake the many nurse mental health nursing leadership positions available within the health care industry; Clinical Nurse Specialist, Nurse Consultant and Nurse Unit Manager roles. This qualification will also provide registered nurses with the competitive edge in order to apply for promotion.The research component of the course will allow graduates to move into research roles and even lead applied clinical research.

Course Structure

• Core Units

  12

• Electives

  None

• Major Units

  None

• Minor Units

  None

Wondering how a self-paced postgraduate course in mental health nursing works and what to expect? Explore the course details below to find out more.

COURSE STRUCTURE
The Master of Mental Health Nursing is comprised of 12 core units. 

The first eight units make up the Graduate Diploma with the final four units being research-based. 

The units within the Master are six credit points. Each unit is designed to require a time commitment of a total of 144 hours. If you study at a typical university term full-time rate of four units over a six-month duration, you will complete the course within 18 months. However, you will have up to five years from enrolment to complete the Master of Mental Health Nursing.

After enrolling, you’ll have access to the first four units, and you can work through these in any order. After you complete these, you will have access to the next four units. We offer these units in this way to ensure you gain the foundation knowledge that later units draw from. The final four units of the Masters will become available once you have completed the first eight units.

ASSESSMENTS
Assessment in the mental health nursing courses ranges from portfolio, online quizzes, case studies, videoed presentations, reports and essay with all being based around your mental health nursing practice – the difference is there are no deadlines or due dates. Additional activities are available for those who wish to explore topics further, however, are not mandatory.

The final four units within the Masters of Mental Health Nursing are heavily research-based and involve literature reviews, reports, practical assessments, a research proposal and research project.

UNIT INFORMATION
The Master of Mental Health Nursing is made up of 12 units with a nested Graduate Certificate and Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing, structured as follows:

Graduate Certificate in Mental Health Nursing
Consists of the following four core units:
NURS20151 Creating Meaningful Relationships
NURS20150 Contextual Foundations of Mental Health Nursing Practice
NURS20157 Mental Health Nursing Assessment and Formulation
NURS20158 Clinical Foundations for Practice

Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing
Consists of the four units above plus three core units and one elective unit:
Core Units:
NURS20153 Recovery Into Action
NURS20149 Mental Health Promotion in Mental Health Nursing
NURS20152 Advanced Therapeutic Interventions
NURS20178 Alcohol and Other Drugs

Masters of Mental Health Nursing
Consists of eight of the above units plus the following four core units:
SCH29001 Foundations of Scholarship 1
SCHO29002 Foundations of Scholarship 2

SCHO29002 Preparing for Scholarship

SCHO29004 Production of Scholarship