Three issues for mental health nurse educators preparing new preregistration programmes
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Three issues for mental health nurse educators preparing new preregistration programmes

Robin Ion Senior Lecturer, Division of Mental Health Nursing and Counselling, University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland
Leanne Patrick Nursing Student, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland
Zoe Chouliara Professor in Mental Health, School of Applied Sciences, University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland
Emily-May Marlow Clinical Academic Fellow, School of Applied Sciences, University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland

Why you should read this article
  • To understand that new preregistration nursing courses in the UK must still comprise four specialisms: adult, child, mental health, and learning disability

  • To familiarise yourself with the issues facing nurse educators preparing new mental health preregistration programmes

  • To understand how upskilling the mental health nursing workforce can improve the experiences of service users

According to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), universities across the UK must develop and implement new preregistration nursing programmes by the end of 2020. Unlike the rest of the world, where initial nurse training is generic, preregistration education in the UK enables students to specialise in one of four fields of nursing practice: adult, child, mental health or learning disability.

The recent NMC standards of proficiency for registered nurses confirmed the continuation of these specialist fields at undergraduate level. Considering these recent standards, nurse educators across the UK have an opportunity to review their existing educational provision.

This article explores three issues facing nurse educators as they prepare new mental health nursing courses: how to respond to adverse life experiences or trauma; how to address the ethical tensions inherent in the use of coercive practices; and how to make a difference to people’s physical health and to mortality statistics, which indicate that people with longstanding mental health issues die at a much younger age than their contemporaries. These areas need to be systematically addressed across mental health preregistration nursing programmes to improve the lives of service users and determine the future of the specialty.

Mental Health Practice. doi: 10.7748/mhp.2020.e1453

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and has been checked for plagiarism using automated software

@robmarki

Correspondence

r.ion@abertay.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Ion R, Patrick L, Chouliara Z et al (2020) Three issues for mental health nurse educators preparing new preregistration programmes. Mental Health Practice. doi: 10.7748/mhp.2020.e1453

Accepted 19 September 2019

Published online: 11 February 2020

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