New mental health nursing degree launched
University College Birmingham has launched a new mental health nursing degree which will help tackle the massive shortage of staff in the NHS.
Students on the Mental Health Nursing BSc (Hons) degree, which welcomes its first cohort in September 2023, will go on a range of diverse placements to experience care across the lifespan and different fields of practice to broaden who they can help.
Placements could include accident and emergency departments, mental health wards and secure units, youth centres, Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CMH) services, prisons and care homes for patients with dementia and requiring end of life care.
Registered Nurse and senior lecturer Helen Eldridge, who was on the frontline of mental health support for 22 years herself, will be programme lead for the three-year degree course.
She said: "Following Covid-19, mental health problems have gotten a lot worse, globally and in the UK, but especially so in the West Midlands,” said Helen, who supported people with complex mental health needs as a clinical lead at a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) and is a specialist in Learning Disabilities nursing.
"We have seen the number of children and adolescents with mental health problems shoot through the roof and waiting times to see a psychiatric team in A&E are many hours. In the community, referral time to see a specialist team can be at least six months. Many service users cannot wait this long.
“Around 20 per cent of the vacant nursing positions in the NHS are in mental health nursing, a desperate shortage of qualified nurses with specialist expertise in this field.
"Dedicated nurses who can support patients while spotting problems that need specific treatments such as anxiety, depression or addictive behaviours."
