Course overview
Our innovative Nursing (Mental Health) degree will enable you to develop the knowledge and skills needed for this rewarding career where each day gives you the opportunity to make a difference to people’s health and wellbeing.
As a mental health nurse, you'll work with people experiencing a range of different mental health problems which may be acute, complex or long-term, helping them to understand their situation, promoting recovery and helping them live independent lives.
This course is subject to approval by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).
About this course
Good mental health is as important as good physical health, however one in four people will experience mental ill health at some point in their life. Working with people, their relatives and carers at what can be the most challenging and vulnerable times, mental health nurses use their communication, interpersonal and therapeutic skills to build trusting, positive and person-centred relationships.
On this course, you'll develop the knowledge and skills to deliver compassionate and culturally informed mental health care in a diverse range of settings, including hospitals, people’s homes, schools, the community and secure services, working in partnership with other professionals to positively influence the mental health outcomes of the people you care for.
You’ll build your knowledge and skills of therapeutic interventions and the pharmacological management of disease, including the safe administration of medication.
You’ll learn and practise your clinical skills in a safe and controlled environment through teaching sessions in dedicated facilities, including clinical suites, simulated clinical environments and replicated community settings, supported by virtual reality software and digital health technologies.
Through shared learning opportunities and collaboration with students from related disciplines, you’ll develop your ability to appreciate the contribution other healthcare professionals make to people’s care and health outcomes. Service users and carers will also contribute to your learning through their lived experience of health and social care services.
Placements
In each year of the programme, you will spend 50% of the time on campus studying theory and clinical skills in the safe environment of our simulation suites and 50% in real-world practice, on placement in healthcare settings with local NHS trusts or in private or voluntary organisations.
Practice placement blocks are 37.5 hours per week and there are two 10-week blocks in each year of the programme. During this time, you’ll be supported by experienced practice supervisors and assessors who will provide tailored feedback and you’ll complete an online portfolio to monitor your progress and achievements while on placement.
Why study with us?
- Innovative Nursing degree co-designed by academic experts in partnership with clinical practice partners, service users and carers.
- Aligned to the principles and values of the NHS Constitution.
- Interprofessional learning opportunities embedded throughout the course.
- Access to outstanding facilities including clinical suites, simulated clinical environments and replicated community settings.
- Personalised learning experience, including smaller class sizes and individualised support.
Course Modules
Year 1
During your first year, you'll study five core modules.
Year 2
During your second year, you'll study five core modules.
Year 3
During your final year, you'll study five core modules.
Learning and Teaching
At Leeds Trinity we aim to provide an excellent student experience and provide you with the tools and support to help you achieve your academic, personal and professional potential.
Our Learning, Teaching and Assessment Strategy delivers excellence by providing the framework for:
- high quality teaching
- an engaging and inclusive approach to learning, assessment and achievement
- a clear structure through which you progress in your academic studies, your personal development and towards professional-level employment or further study.
We have a strong reputation for developing student employability, supporting your development towards graduate employment, with relevant skills embedded throughout your programme of study.
We endeavour to develop curiosity, confidence, courage, ambition and aspiration in all students through the key themes in our Learning and Teaching Strategy:
- Student Involvement and Engagement
- Inclusion
- Integrated Programme and Assessment Experience
- Digital Literacy and Skills
- Employability and Enterprise
To help you achieve your potential we emphasise learning as a collaborative process, with a range of student-led and real-world activities. This approach ensures that you fully engage in shaping your own learning, developing your critical thinking and reflective skills so that you can identify your own strengths and weaknesses, and use the extensive learning support system we offer to shape your own development.
We believe the secret to great learning and teaching is simple: it is about creating an inclusive learning experience that allows all students to thrive through:
- Personalised support
- Expert lecturers
- Strong connections with employers
- An international outlook
- Understanding how to use tools and technology to support learning and development
Programme delivery
Your time on campus, learning through in-person teaching, is at the heart of your academic experience and the way we deliver our programmes. This is supported and further enhanced by additional engagement activities and opportunities provided online and through digital teaching materials. This blended approach seeks to ensure a positive learning and teaching student experience.
Your programme of study has been carefully designed around a three-phase model of delivery:
- Preparation: You will be given clear tasks to support you in preparing for live teaching. This could include watching a short-pre-recorded lecture, reading a paper or text chapter or preparing other material for use in class.
- Live: All your live teaching will be designed around active learning, providing you with valuable opportunities to build on preparation tasks, interact with staff and peers, and surface any misunderstandings.
- Post: Follow-up activities will include opportunities for you to check understanding, for staff to receive feedback from you and your peers to inform subsequent sessions, and for you to apply learning to new situations or context.
Preparation, Live and Post teaching and learning and the digital materials used will vary by course, but will be designed to help you structure your learning, take a full and active part in your course, and apply and test your developing knowledge and skills.
Assessment
A variety of assessment methods are used, matched to the learning outcomes for your programme, allowing you to apply and demonstrate the full range of knowledge and skills that you have developed.
For more details on specific assessment methods for this course contact hello@leedstrinity.ac.uk
Entry Requirements
Leeds Trinity University is committed to recruiting students with talent and potential and who we feel will benefit greatly from their academic and non-academic experiences here. We treat every application on its own merits; we value highly the experience you illustrate in your personal statement.
Information about the large range of qualifications we accept, including A-Levels, BTECs and T Levels, can be found on our entry requirements page. If you need additional advice or are taking qualifications that are not covered in the information supplied, please contact our Admissions Office.
| Qualification | Grade |
|---|---|
| UCAS tariff | 112-136 |
| GCSE requirements | English Language or English Literature and Maths at grade C or 4 or higher |
UCAS tariff points
Applicants can meet the required tariff points from a range of qualifications of which at least two must be Level 3 qualifications equivalent to A Level. General Studies is excluded.
We accept a broad range of qualifications such as A Levels, BTECs, OCR, CACHE qualifications and T levels. You must have a qualification in a relevant subject i.e. Health, Science or Social Science.
Access to HE Diplomas are accepted and must be in a relevant subject such as Health Professions, Health Science, Nursing and Midwifery, etc.
You can use the UCAS tariff calculator to work out your predicted or achieved points and you can contact our Admissions Office if you need further advice about your qualifications.
We also accept the Level 3 Senior Healthcare Support Worker Apprenticeship with an End Point Assessment grade of Distinction.
GCSE requirements
Key Skills, Functional Skills, BTEC level 2 and the Certificate in Adult Numeracy/Literacy are accepted in place of GCSEs.
English Language requirements
If English is not your first language and you have not been educated in the UK, you will need an IELTS academic score of 7.0 with a minimum of 7.0 in reading, listening and speaking and 6.5 in writing to meet NMC requirements. The scores can come from two separate tests taken within 12 months of each other as long as you still meet these scores and the NMC minimum requirements. Please contact our Admissions Office to discuss this in more detail.
This course is not available to students on a Student Route Visa.
Recognition of prior learning
You may also be able to access the course through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL).
The Nursing and Midwifery Council can allow entry through recognition of prior learning. You will need to be able to map this to the Standards of Proficiency for registered nurses and programme outcomes, up to a maximum of 50% of the course. If you are a registered nurse, this may be mapped to more than 50%, you should contact the Admissions team to discuss.
Any modules you wish to be considered during this process must come from another Nursing and Midwifery Council approved nursing programme. You must complete the relevant mapping documents to apply via the Recognition of Prior Learning route.
Please contact the Admissions team if you would like to discuss your prior learning, you will be supported through the process of applying for RPL by the Admissions team and the Programme Lead.
Please note that direct entry via RPL to Level 5 (Year 2) or 6 (Year 3) of this course is NOT available for January 2024 entry.
Additional entry requirements
For entry onto this course, you will need to meet the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (2018) requirements for selection. This includes completion of a declaration of Health and Character, Occupational Health, a satisfactory interview and a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. For further information, please visit our Nursing - Additional Entry Requirements page.
Personal Statements
You’ll need to write a personal statement - we've prepared a personal statement guide to help you.
Interview Information
Applicants who meet the entry criteria will be invited to interview. You will need to attend an interview before we can offer you a place on this course.
Fees and finance
Funding
UK Home Students:
Tuition fees cost £9,250 a year for this course in 2023/2024.
Part-time tuition fees will be prorated accordingly to the number of credits you're studying.
Depending on government policy, tuition fees may change in future years.
Tuition fees for 2024/25 entry will be set in summer 2023.
Living costs, e.g. accommodation, travel, food, will also need to be taken into consideration.
Leeds Trinity offers a range of bursaries and scholarships to help support students while you study.
NHS Learning Support Fund
A non-repayable training grant of £5,000 and extra payments worth up to £3,000 are available to eligible home students for each year of study. Read more about the NHS Learning Support Fund on the NHS Business Services Authority website.
Additional costs
We advise students that there may be additional course costs in addition to annual tuition fees:
- Recommended and required reading lists will be provided at the start of your course. All the books and e-books are available from our Library to borrow but you may choose to purchase your own.
- On some courses there may be additional costs, such as field trips, equipment, accreditations, that may be part-funded by the University. More details will be provided at the start of the course.
- You'll need to include placement/s travel and associated costs too, however the University will contribute a standard amount towards your total expenditure.
- The University provides students with a £6 printing credit each academic year which can be topped up either on campus or online.
How to apply
Applications to start this course in January 2024 are now open.
For full-time undergraduate courses, you will apply through UCAS. That's the University and Colleges Admissions Service.
On your application form, you'll need to know our institution code - it's L24 - and the course code. If you click through to the UCAS website using the button below, it'll take you to the right place with all the information you need.
Important: When you come to add a choice on UCAS, the form will show two options. For a January 2024 start date, you will need to select January 2024 from the drop-down menu.
You’ll need to write a personal statement - we've prepared a personal statement guide to help you.
Although the main UCAS deadline has passed, you can still apply until 30 June if you haven’t applied yet or haven’t used all five choices on UCAS. After this date, all applications will go through Clearing.
Alternatively, if you’ve used all your five choices, but received no offers or declined your offers, you may be eligible to add another choice through UCAS Extra. UCAS will send you information on UCAS Extra if you’re eligible.
UCAS Extra opened on Thursday 23 February 2023 and closes on Tuesday 4 July 2023.
Applications are not yet open for Nursing courses starting in January 2025. You can register and start your application from 16 May 2023, although you cannot submit it until later in the year. The UCAS application deadline for Nursing courses starting in January 2025 is 31 January 2024.
There's lots more information about the application process on the UCAS website, or you can get in touch with our admissions team who will be happy to help:
- call 0113 283 7123 (Monday to Thursday, 9.00am to 5.00pm, or Friday 9.00am to 4.00pm)
- email admissions@leedstrinity.ac.uk
This course is not available to students on a Student Route Visa.
Graduate opportunities
Providing you with the opportunity to develop the professional skills and experience you need to launch your career is at the heart of everything we do at Leeds Trinity University.
On successful completion of the Nursing (Mental Health) degree, you will be eligible to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to practise as a nurse (on the relevant part of the register) in the UK. The vocational nature of this degree means most graduates progress quickly into employment within their chosen field of Nursing.
Mental health nursing careers exist within NHS Trusts on a variety of wards, including acute care, forensic, Accident and Emergency liaison, child and adolescent mental health services, and within community teams and primary care as a mental health specialist practitioner. You could also consider a career within local authority, private hospitals, the voluntary and independent sector, charitable organisations, the pharmaceutical industry, the armed forces, the prison service, research and education or specialist practice, many of which offer opportunities to work either in the UK or overseas.
After you graduate, Careers and Placements will help you as you pursue your chosen career through our mentoring scheme, support with CV and interview preparation and access to graduate employability events.
To find out how we can help you make your career ambitions a reality, visit:
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