Mental Health Nursing or Psychology?

You could always take a gap year to gain experience to write about in your personal statement for mental health nursing.

But re: psychology. Yes, it's very competitive, but there are things you can do to mitigate it. Having a shining academic record at university is one. Picking up every work opportunity humanly possible during university is also great. If you ingratiate yourself with lecturers at university they'll be very happy to help you and I know a person or two who have managed to participate in some research carried out by their universities by being on friendly terms with lecturers and just asking. All of this helps you stand out in applications. It's also about having a strong mindset and daring the odds and knowing that yes, it's competitive, you might fail a couple of times but if you keep at it you'll probably find a way to succeed. I'm big on chasing dreams so that's what I'd do.

There’s no reason that you can’t take a pg registration course in MH nursing after a psychology degree.

It’s worth doing some thorough research into what a psychology degree involves - it’s a heavily academic course and not a route to a career in counselling. An accredited counselling degree would be worth looking into instead if that’s your interest.

I know the basics, Psychology is an oversaturated market, but I can’t help thinking there’s nothing else I want to do at Uni. Except mental health nursing. While I feel MhN is good, I haven’t prepared well enough to write a nice personal statement with experience for it so idk what to do. I want to become a Psychologist so bad and yet the amount of people that have failed in this career or have used their degrees for something else is alarming. I seriously don’t know what to do and it’s weighing me down. Pls help!!!

Hi! Firstly, if you are unsure of what you want to do at university, there is absolutely no harm in taking a gap year to figure things out (as well as gain valuable work experience)! Psychology is a good degree in that it is flexible with where you can take it. This is a huge advantage as changing your career plans halfway through your degree is unlikely to cause too much issue. If you want to become a psychologist, you can always use a psychology degree as a basis of education and then move onto more specific courses such as DClinPsy or nursing. It is generally best to start broadly and narrow down what you want to do over time.
Courses related to clinical psychology and mental health nursing are likely to require a higher level of previous work experience and/or education, so it is important to fully research these before making an application.
Best of luck!
-Kat (2nd year psychology undergraduate at Lancaster University)