Many mental health nurses used to start their career in an adult inpatient service to develop their confidence and skills. This has changed and newly registered mental health nurses now work in a range of settings, including in the community. This article details the evaluation of a preregistration mental health nursing programme. Between six months and four years after registration, graduates from one university in England were asked where they worked on registration and at the time of the evaluation. A large majority of the 56 respondents worked in an adult inpatient setting on registration, but by the time of the evaluation, many had moved to community and specialist settings.

The evaluation also found that in one cohort of 39 mental health nursing students, most placements had been in inpatient settings. The placement setting, particularly for the final placement, is a recognised factor influencing where nurses choose to work on registration, but further research on this is needed. Universities and healthcare organisations need to offer a balance of placement settings and exposure to different age groups, so that newly registered mental health nurses feel confident in applying for roles in a range of areas.