This unit of study is the first of two focusing on mental health nursing and is based on the principle that mental health knowledge and skills are essential for all nurses, regardless of their healthcare setting. The unit is underpinned by an evidence-based holistic understanding of mental health and illness. The unit aims to introduce students to constructs of mental health and wellbeing and mental illness and to the nurse's role in promoting mental health, preventing mental illness and minimising the negative effects of illness for individuals, family/carers and the community. Students will explore and develop core mental health nursing values, skills and knowledge. Consumer and carer perspectives will inform students' understandings of mental health and mental health problems as experienced across the lifespan by children, young people and adults, and older persons of varying cultural and gendered backgrounds. Mental health problems are explored with respect to the latest evidence for risk/protective factors, symptomatology, co-morbidities, nursing care, and psychotherapeutic and physical treatment approaches. The nurse's effective use of self and the therapeutic nurse/client interpersonal relationship as core mental health nursing skills are addressed from theoretical and practical perspectives. Students will develop key mental health assessment and clinical nursing skills. The scope of nursing practice is addressed in a range of mental health and ethico-legal contexts with the overall aim of generating nursing care that supports effective outcomes for mental health consumers and their family/carers.
Unit details and rules
Academic unit | Nursing and Midwifery |
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Credit points | 6 |
Prerequisites
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36 Year 1 credit points including NURS1008 |
Corequisites
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None |
Prohibitions
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None |
Assumed knowledge
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None |
Available to study abroad and exchange students | No |
Teaching staff
Coordinator | Sophie Isobel, sophie.isobel@sydney.edu.au |
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Lecturer(s) | Sophie Isobel, sophie.isobel@sydney.edu.au |
Tutor(s) | Kathryn Solanki, kathryn.solanki@sydney.edu.au |