Mental Health Nursing Practice 1 (NURS90101)

Intended learning outcomes

On completion of this subject, students should be able to:

• Apply the core documents in the practice of mental health nursing, for example Recognising and Responding to Deterioration in Mental State (ACSHC, 2014).
• Act within the legal and ethical frameworks, mental health law, and professional standards of practice
• Explain the role of lifelong learning, clinical supervision and reflective practice in mental health nursing
• Conduct and accurately interpret a mental health assessment, including biological, social, psychological, cultural and spiritual factors that impact the consumer, their families and carers across the lifespan
• Realise the importance of recovery -oriented practices and principles of trauma informed care by embedding these philosophies into daily nursing activities
• Plan, implement and evaluate nursing interventions that include consideration to therapeutic relationships, creating safe environments, psychopharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions
• Provide health literacy to support consumers, their families and carers in understanding their lived experiences in mental health services

Generic skills

On completion of the subject students should have developed the following generic skills of the Melbourne graduate and postgraduate coursework student:
1. A capacity to articulate their knowledge and understanding in oral and written modes of communication.
2. A capacity to manage competing demands on time, including self-directed project work.
3. Advanced competencies in areas of professional expertise and/or scholarship.
4. Advanced skills and techniques applicable to the discipline.
5. Well-developed problem-solving abilities in the discipline area, characterised by flexibility of approach.
6. An ability to evaluate and synthesise the research and professional literature in the discipline.
7. An appreciation of the ways in which advanced knowledge equips the student to offer leadership in the specialist area.