Accelerated Nursing (Mental Health)
Full-time
18 month
April 2025
In a nutshell
Mental health nurses work in hospitals or in the community, offering support, education and care to people using mental health services. On this course, you will experience the realities of contemporary 24-hour service provision when caring for patients across all aspects of the health/ill health continuum.
50% of your studies will be spent in hospital and community settings, within the NHS and independent sector which includes prison placements, where you will spend time in a well-supported environment, working alongside qualified practice assessors and supervisors.
This accelerated programme is NMC approved and on successful completion you will have a recognised degree qualification that leads to registration as a qualified nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
You will:
- Learn how to support people during the most acute phases of their distress
- Learn how to work with people who have issues around substance misuse or offending behaviour
- Learn how to help those with ongoing mental health conditions
options available
Course accreditations
This is for you if...
You are hardworking and committed
You are prepared to work shifts
You are a compassionate and caring character
You can see yourself working with people from all kinds of backgrounds
You want to make a real difference
You have a strong desire to help people
All about the course
The accelerated nursing programme is designed for applicants who have a Level 5 Nursing Associate Foundation Degree (FdSc). As a successful applicant you will join at the 18th month point of the programme. Your initial study will focus on appraising your existing knowledge and skills and building on these in order to demonstrate your suitability for entry onto the NMC register as a Registered Nurse.
Our nursing programmes embody a shared philosophy that represents the values and beliefs of key partners, including: students, patients, service users and families, practice colleagues and university staff. Theoretical underpinnings of the philosophy include: nursing ethics, personalisation, and a safety model ensuring the safety and protection of people of all ages and their carers and families.
Key concepts support the development of professional behaviours, inter-professional working, values and attitudes expected of a compassionate nurse, such as: connectedness, emotional intelligence, and moral responsibility and creativity.
You will work with staff and clinical partners as co-creators in your learning experience. A coaching approach to personal tutoring will unlock your potential and character development as a professional nurse.
A wealth of facilities at university are available to you, including formal teaching, group and one-to-one sessions, a comfortable and enriching learning space with state-of-the-art clinical and immersive simulation suites.
50% of your studies will be spent across hospital and community settings, working alongside qualified assessors and supervisors. You will experience the realities of 24-hour service provision working night shifts and weekends. You may also have the opportunity to go on an international placement.
Exploring Nursing Evidence and Interventions
A key component to ensuring that your future practice stays up to date is your understanding and interpretation of the best available evidence. During this module you will develop your ability to be able to find, evaluate and apply a range of different types of evidence to support both your own practice, and that of the multi-professional teams within which you work. Further to this you will also explore strategies to ensure that the personal preferences and needs of the patients and carers you are supporting are still maintained during your interactions with them.
Exploring the Fundamentals of Integrated Nursing Practice
You will demonstrate how the required NMC proficiencies commensurate with your stage of learning and development in year two in relation to your chosen field of practice and interprofessional practice (NMC part 2 progression). This will include developing skills in looking outwards from one's own profession to consider relationships with other professionals/nonprofessional people and the impact this has on care delivery.
Being an Autonomous Mental Health Practitioner
You will develop the knowledge, skills and professional attitudes to facilitate the critical, systematic and contemporary application of the evidence base required to demonstrate autonomous nursing practice. This will be achieved through the delivery of a blended learning approach by way of seminars, masterclasses, action learning sets, practice and guided independent study. A feature of this module will be that some of the master classes will be delivered by specialist clinicians focusing upon quality, safety and personalised care across health and social care.
Being an Inspiring Mental Health Practitioner
You will build upon your developing knowledge, skills and professional attitudes to facilitate the critical application of the evidence base required to demonstrate inspirational nursing practice. Aspects of leadership, management, team working and exploration of evidence based nursing practice, linked to both pathogenesis and salutogenesis will be implicit throughout.
Practice Module – Part 3
You will demonstrate the required NMC proficiencies commensurate with your stage of learning and development in year three in relation to your chosen field of practice and interprofessional practice (NMC part 3 progression). This will include developing skills to enable you to practice independently and confidently, as a role model, and in so doing demonstrate systematic critical understanding of accountable, safe, compassionate, person-centred, evidence-based, nursing care which represents and maintains dignity and human rights and promotes this through reflection within recognised professional/inter professional, ethical, socio-political and legal frameworks.
Leading Mental Health Nursing
This 20-credit module will enable the student to consolidate their learning and demonstrate a critical understanding of looking outwards from one's own profession to consider relationships with other professional/non-professional people and the impact this has on care delivery in Mental Health Nursing practice.
Please note that it may not be possible to deliver the full list of options every year as this will depend on factors such as how many students choose a particular option. Exact modules may also vary in order to keep content current. When accepting your offer of a place to study on this programme, you should be aware that not all optional modules will be running each year. Your tutor will be able to advise you as to the available options on or before the start of the programme. Whilst the University tries to ensure that you are able to undertake your preferred options, it cannot guarantee this.
School of Health and Society
The School of Health and Society is a forward-thinking, dynamic school with a commitment to lifelong learning and real world impact.
Our courses are informed by the latest research and we work closely with organisations from both the public and private sector to ensure our teaching is at the forefront of practice.
Facilities
Our Clinical Practice Wards are located in the Mary Seacole Building. There are four rooms designed to give the look and feel of a hospital environment. The rooms are furnished with patient's beds, lockers, chairs, sinks and curtains as well as audio-visual equipment, internet and a teaching area.
We also have a number of clinical skills rooms that enhance student learning from taking blood pressure, to giving CPR and more complicated procedures. Along with nursing skills rooms where you can practice in a ward situation, there are basic skills rooms for sessions such as moving and handling.
Patient Simulators
The patient simulation laboratory provides you with the opportunity to tackle real-life scenarios in a safe and supported environment. Set up like a hospital ward, the lab contains hi-tech patient simulators that can mimic everything from the common cold to a major heart condition.
The equipment includes:
- Emergency Care Patient Simulators: Anatomically correct, feature-rich mannequins, which can be used for the physical demonstration of various clinical signs including bleeding, breathing, blinking eyes and convulsions.
- iStan Patient Simulators: A step up from the ECS, the iStan adds an essential human element to patient simulation. It moves, breathes, can cry out or moan with pain, providing a realistic patient for you to practice on
- Pedia Patient Simulator: A complete reproduction of a six-year-old child enabling you to practice paediatric scenarios
- Baby simulator: This mannequin makes it possible to interact with our most vulnerable patients - in a safe, realistic learning environment
All the simulation equipment can be linked up to some very hi-tech computer and audio-visual aids. Groups of students get to role-play a wide range of different scenarios, with a lab co-ordinator observing, running and intervening in the scenario remotely.
Sophisticated computer equipment can also provide detailed physiological information for each of the simulators under observation. The lab will help you develop the clinical skills you need but also the high level communication skills that will make a real difference to your patients.
Take a 360 tour of the facilities here.
Service Users and Carers Group (SU&C)
Our Nursing Service Users and Carers Group (SU&C) is a collective group of service users, carers and parents who have past and current lived experience of engaging with local healthcare services and or providing care for family or friends. The group shares their breadth and wealth of expertise and diverse lived experiences in an open genuine, generous and frank manner with students to ensure that the voices of the public, patients and carers are fully heard and represented in the nursing curriculum.
What about after uni?
As a graduate and qualified staff nurse in your chosen field of practice you will be able to apply for a job in either an acute setting such as a hospital or in the community. You may want to work within the NHS or in the public and private sectors for example, a ward, a health centre, a prison, a care home or a hospice.
Career Links
You will work alongside a qualified practice assessors and supervisors in practice learning areas where you will experience a wide variety of care-giving settings. You will be expected to work the same shift patterns as your practice supervisor (including weekends and night duty) and will need to be able to travel to and from clinical placements.
You will spend half of your time at the University and the other half working in hospital and community settings, within the NHS and independent sector. These practice learning opportunities will be across the Greater Manchester area including Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham and Rochdale.
What You Need To Know
APPLICANT PROFILE
Nursing is not a nine-to-five job. Neither is being a student nurse:
- You will be expected to work the same shifts as your practice supervisor in hospital and community settings
- You do not get long holiday breaks; our course works on the basis of seven weeks of annual leave per year (six weeks are allocated and non-negotiable plus one week of flexible annual leave)
- Your placement may be up to 90 minutes away from the University of Salford
As part of the application process, you may be invited to complete an assessment / attend an online activity. If this is the case, we will contact you with further details.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
If you are an international student and not from a majority English-speaking country, you will need IELTS 6.5, with a minimum of 6.0 in writing. We also accept a range of other English language qualifications. If you do not have the English language requirements, you could take the Pre-Sessional English course to gain entry onto this degree.
GCSE
GCSE English and maths at grade c/grade 4 minimum (or equivalent)
The GCSE requirement is in addition to the Level 5 qualification detailed below.
It is preferred that applicants already hold grade 4 or grade C or above in English Language/Literature and Mathematics GCSE or an approved alternative qualification, prior to making their application. Applicants who are in the process of completing their GCSE English Language and Mathematics or level 2 equivalents may also be considered.
For applicants who do not hold GCSE Mathematics grade C/4 or above, the following qualifications may be considered: Level 2 Functional Skills in Mathematics or a Maths Equivalency Test. For more information please visit www.equivalencytesting.com
Level 5 qualification
You will need a Level 5 Nursing Associate Foundation Degree and you will need to be registered with the NMC as a nursing associate.
How Much?
Your tuition fees are regulated by the UK government who has proposed changes to tuition fees for UK students studying in England from 1 August 2025. The fee stated reflects this proposed change, but remains subject to parliamentary approval. Your tuition fees may increase in your first and each subsequent year of your programme to the maximum amount permitted by UK law or regulation for that academic year.
Your fees for the 6-month portion of the programme will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
Additional funding support for healthcare students
The NHS Learning Support Fund is available to students studying Diagnostic Radiography, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Prosthetics and Orthotics, Midwifery, and Nursing (adult, child, mental health, learning disability, joint nursing/social work).
Visit the NHSBSA website for further information.
| Type of study | Year | Fees |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time home | 2024/25 | £9,250.00per year |
| Full-time home | 2025/26 | £9,535.00per year |
Additional costs
For more information about uniforms, DBS, Occupational Health clearance, and immunisations, visit our Student Onboarding DBS and Occupational Health page.
You should consider further costs which may include books, stationery, printing, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits.
All Set? Let's Apply
Still have some questions? Register for one of our Open Days or contact our enquiries team:
By email: enquiries@salford.ac.uk
By phone: +44 (0)161 295 4545
Enrolment dates
UCAS information
Course ID B772
Institution S03