Helpful information about the day in the life of a Mental Health Nurse

To become a registered mental health nurse in the UK, you will need to have a pre-registration general nursing qualification in your country and a minimum of 12 months experience working in a mental health setting. This article outlines helpful information on what the role entails, where mental health nurses can work, and the skills needed to be a mental health nurse in the UK.

Mental health nurses support and treat patients with mental ill health such as anxiety, depression, psychosis, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, eating disorders and later life dementia. They can work in a hospital or community setting across a range of specialist mental health services to provide a range of nursing interventions from monitoring for relapse signs, knowing what potential triggers your patients can experience and supporting them to identify these themselves, and to engage in meaningful activities to support their recovery.

Many of the skills to fulfil the role of a mental health nurse can be transferable from life experience and other nursing roles. Some of these skills include:

Effective communication and listening skills.
Being emotional reliance
Being compassionate
Robust risk assessment and risk management skills.
Medication management skills

I hope you find this information useful in preparing you to consider a role as mental health nurse in London. You will be fully supported through a robust OSCE and pastoral programme to prepare you to work and flourish as registered mental health nurse in London.

Helpful resources:

Dean Gimblett,

Deputy International Recruitment (IR) Lead

Dean Gimblett is the Deputy International Recruitment (IR) Lead at NHS England (London)/CapitalNurse. He has a BSc in Mental Health Nursing and an MSc in Community Mental Health Studies, and for several years he worked as a community mental health nurse supporting and treating acutely unwell patients with severe mental health problems in their own homes in the community.

Dean is originally from Wales and moved to London in 2017 to further progress his career, he has worked in nurse education in several NHS organisations to strengthen and develop the nursing workforce.