Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing

2024 Deakin University Handbook

Year	2024 course information
Award granted	Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing
Deakin course code	H679
Faculty	Faculty of Health
Campus	This course is only offered Online
Duration	2 years part-time Note: this course is only available part-time
Course Map - enrolment planning tool	This course map is for new students commencing from Trimester 2 2024 Course maps for commencement in previous years are available on the Course Maps webpage or please contact a Student Adviser in Student Central.
Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) recognition	The award conferred upon completion is recognised in the Australian Qualifications Framework at Level 8

Course sub-headings

Course overview

With around 42% of Australians* experiencing a mental health condition at some time in their life, there is significant government and industry focus on growing and fostering the mental health workforce. Designed with flexibility for practicing nurses, Deakin’s Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing will provide you with the advanced practical skills and knowledge to launch, or advance, your practice in mental health.

Developed in consultation with our key industry partners, you’ll gain the comprehensive theoretical and advanced practical skills needed to work with consumers, carers and supporters in any setting where mental health intervention occurs. You’ll graduate with an advanced understanding of holistic nursing assessment, major mental health conditions, person-centred approaches, therapeutic and pharmacological intervention.

Are you looking to advance your career in mental health nursing while also gaining complementary knowledge and skills?

Help deliver the care that an increasing number of Australians need each year. With Deakin’s Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing you’ll understand the core, foundational, and consumer-centric mental health concepts necessary to work within the multidisciplinary teams supporting consumers, carers and supporters.

In this two-year part-time course, you’ll undertake six core units via Deakin’s premium interactive learning platform, and can tailor your degree to your interests with the choice of two course electives.

During your first year you’ll gain an advanced understanding of comprehensive nursing assessment and the fundamental role that it plays in psychiatric and mental health nursing. You will learn to recognise the biological, psychological, social and spiritual components of an individual’s life, and how these can positively and negatively influence their mental health. Build on your existing skills with course content and assessments designed to facilitate advanced recognition and response to altered mental states and clinical presentations; develop comprehensive understanding of the experiences of vulnerable populations while also exploring high and low prevalence mental health conditions including, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, mood disorders, and anxiety disorders.

Expanding on these foundations you’ll examine and learn how to apply contemporary and effective person-centred therapeutic interventions; working with consumers, carers and supporters on their recovery journey. Students will explore trauma-informed care, principles of recovery-oriented nursing practice and the role of peers, carers and families in supporting consumers with mental health challenges. Contemporary mental health treatment calls for a combination of nursing interventions that treat symptoms, manage psychological distress and support and foster consumer wellbeing and resilience. You’ll gain a deep understanding of both pharmacologic and talk therapies that underpin current mental health nursing practices, including the quality use of psychotropic medications such as antipsychotic, antimanic, anxiolytic, and antidepressant medications; as well as person-centred approaches to talk therapy, such as cognitive behaviour therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy.

In the second year you’ll gain an advanced understanding and knowledge of the physical health issues associated with mental illness and its treatments, such as common complications experienced by those consumers taking psychotropic medications, including metabolic syndrome and other conditions caused by medication-induced obesity.

In order to support consumers living with mental health challenges, nurses must be resilient and able to thrive in spite of the demands and stress of working in this challenging environment. You’ll enhance and support your nursing practice to manage the dynamic and challenging experiences of working in the mental healthcare environment; safeguarding your personal mental health through recognising, navigating and preventing burnout.

You’ll have the opportunity to explore a personal area of interest, or add further specialised knowledge and skills to your CV with the inclusion of two course electives. You can tailor your degree and your career outcomes by choosing from a wide range of areas including vulnerable communities, counselling, diabetes education and management, or leadership and education in nursing.

As a graduate of the Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing you’ll have the skills and knowledge to enhance your mental health nursing career as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN), senior clinician, or step into a leadership role across a range of community and inpatient settings.

*(People aged 16–85 years) National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2020-2022

Indicative student workload

As an online student in the Faculty of Health you will be expected to spend 11-13 hours every week studying, interacting online and completing assessment tasks for each unit in your course. Refer to the individual unit details in the course structure for more information.

Professional recognition

Nurses employed in a health service with mental health postgraduate qualifications, may be eligible for a higher duties allowance relevant to their practice.

Career opportunities

As government and industry continue to focus on building and securing the mental health workforce, registered nurses with specialised postgraduate qualifications in mental health nursing are in strong demand, and in many services are a minimum requirement to work in the setting following an undergraduate nursing degree.

Deakin’s outstanding employment rate for postgraduate nursing means you can be confident in taking the next step in your career. As a graduate of the Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing you’ll have the skills and knowledge to enhance your mental health nursing career as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN), senior clinician, or step into a leadership role across a range of community and inpatient settings.

Upon graduation, you may find work in:

acute public mental health/psychiatry
aged care services
child and adolescent mental health/psychiatry
forensic services
mother and baby services
community mental health
drug and alcohol services
private mental health

Participation requirements

Reasonable adjustments to participation and other course requirements will be made for students with a disability. More information available at Disability support services.

Alternative exits

Graduate Certificate of Mental Health Nursing (H579)

Fees and charges

Fees and charges vary depending on the type of fee place you hold, your course, your commencement year, the units you choose to study, and their study discipline or your study load.

Tuition fees increase at the beginning of each calendar year and all fees quoted are in Australian dollars ($AUD). Tuition fees do not include textbooks, computer equipment or software, other equipment or costs such as mandatory checks, travel and stationery.

Use the Fee estimator to see course and unit fees applicable to your course and type of place. For further information regarding tuition fees, other fees and charges, invoice due dates, withdrawal dates, payment methods visit our Current students website.

Course Learning Outcomes

Graduate Learning Outcomes	Course Learning Outcomes
Discipline-specific knowledge and capabilities	Critically analyse and apply theories and evidence informed practice to facilitate recovery-oriented, trauma informed and consumer-centred mental health nursing care.
Communication	Apply advanced therapeutic nursing communication skills and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to promote the advocacy, agency and self-determination of mental health consumers, families, and carers.
Digital literacy	Maintain and advance mental health nursing knowledge and practice through the critical analysis of mental health research using digital technologies.
Critical thinking	Apply advanced critical thinking nursing skills through the analysis, evaluation, and critique of evidence-based sources to inform clinical decision making.
Problem solving	Assess, plan and deliver mental health nursing care to diverse consumers with complex mental health needs.
Self-management	Practice independently demonstrating accountability and personal responsibility, whilst reflecting on nursing practice.
Teamwork	Collaborate with mental health consumers and the multidisciplinary team to optimise consumer outcomes and engagement.
Global Citizenship	Maintain professional and ethical standards of nursing practice whilst recognising diverse cultural and community perspectives.

Course rules

To complete the Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing, students must attain 8 credit points of units comprising of 6 core (compulsory) units, plus 2 credit points of course electives taken over two years of part-time study.

All commencing Faculty of Health Undergraduate and Postgraduate course work students are required to complete DAI001 Academic Integrity Module (0-credit-point compulsory unit) in their first trimester of study.

Students are required to meet the University's academic progress and conduct requirements.