Working as a Mental Health Nurse

Mental Health Nurses in the UK practice under the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) Code of Conduct to ensure they meet all professional, legal, and ethical requirements for working in the NHS. The code states that all Nurses must always follow four key proficiencies: prioritise people, practice effectively, preserve safety and promote professionalism and trust.

Nurses have a legal responsibility to keep up to date with current knowledge and maintain clinical supervision through Continuing Professional Development (CPD). The NHS offers a wide range of training and development options to support this.

Nursing in community services involves support, monitoring, medication administration, care planning, and counselling and advocacy for a group of people. In a hospital setting there is an emphasis on care, safety, and risk management, teamworking and therapeutic and recreational activity to help prepare for discharge.

In both community and inpatient settings, Mental Health Nurses provide treatment and care in partnership with other health and care professionals in multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs). These typically include Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, Occupational Therapists, Dietitians, Pharmacists, Therapists, and others. Interventions may be pharmacological, psychological, educational, social, or occupational and specifically tailored to the needs of an individual.

People accessing mental health services are often referred to as clients, service users or patients and they are actively engaged in co-producing their own plan of care. Families and carers are also an integral part of the development of a recovery plan and discharge planning.

Specific duties include:

• Assessing and talking to patients about their problems and discussing the best way to plan and deliver their care
• Building relationships with patients to encourage trust, while listening to and interpreting their needs and concerns
• Ensuring the correct administration of medication, including injections, and monitoring the results of treatment
• Responding to distressed patients in a non-threatening manner and attempt to understand the source of their discomfort
• Helping patients manage their emotions through de-escalation techniques
• Preparing and participating in group and/or one-to-one therapy sessions, both individually and with other health professionals
• Providing evidence-based individual therapy, such as cognitive behaviour therapy for depression and anxiety

Mental Health Nurses work in hospital and community settings and generally work shifts over seven days of the week, including day and night duty and on-call rotas. Some 60% of Nurses work 12-hour shifts, usually from 7am to 7pm, or 7pm to 7am.  There are also options to work more flexibly by joining staff ‘banks’ operated by NHS Professionals and NHS Trusts themselves.

The basic pay for a Registered Mental Health Nurse, in the UK, ranges from £22,816 - £28,407 a year, for a 37.5-hour week.

Anyone who is trained outside the UK and wants to work as a Mental Health Nurse in the NHS must register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). Before this stage, applicants need to successfully complete a two-part application process which includes a Computer-Based Test and an objective structured clinical exam (OSCE).

Overseas Mental Health Nurses must also meet the English language standard set by the NMC.