Children nursing first or Mental Health Nursing

Hello,
I'm wondering if there's anyone out there who has or is working in the CAMHS field who could point me in the right direction? So, I was thinking of applying in mental health nursing that focuses on children of all range of learning difficulties. I don't know what university course to apply for or which university is best for mental health courses as I hear that some unis that have the course often have course contents d
that dont provide enough relevant study materials/or the teaching isn't informative and often disorganised. Would like you hear from your experience!

Reply 1

oliviasibleyx

10

Hi! I'm in year 13 and I have applied for a mix of child and mental health courses because I also want to work in CAMHS. I have applied mainly for childrens nursing because from speaking to others who want to go into the same field I have been told that to work in CAMHS you are better off with a childrens nursing degree as a mental health degree tends to focus more on adults and you will rarely get any placements to do with children. I did also apply for a four year masters degree (nursing is usually a 3 year undergraduate degree). This degree children and mental health nursing so when you graduate you are able to register as either a child or mental health nurse. I think this is probably the bets route to take to get into CAMHS. This course is only done at a few universities though such as Southampton, Birmingham and Plymouth. I applied for the course at Southampton. It's also very competitive and the entry requirements are higher for obvious reasons. I will link the page which shows the details of this course at Southampton. I hope I answered your question :smile:

Reply 2

oliviasibleyx

10

https://www.southampton.ac.uk/courses/nursing-child-and-mental-health-degree-mnurs#modules

Reply 3

Khloeh

9

Original post by oliviasibleyx

Hi! I'm in year 13 and I have applied for a mix of child and mental health courses because I also want to work in CAMHS. I have applied mainly for childrens nursing because from speaking to others who want to go into the same field I have been told that to work in CAMHS you are better off with a childrens nursing degree as a mental health degree tends to focus more on adults and you will rarely get any placements to do with children. I did also apply for a four year masters degree (nursing is usually a 3 year undergraduate degree). This degree children and mental health nursing so when you graduate you are able to register as either a child or mental health nurse. I think this is probably the bets route to take to get into CAMHS. This course is only done at a few universities though such as Southampton, Birmingham and Plymouth. I applied for the course at Southampton. It's also very competitive and the entry requirements are higher for obvious reasons. I will link the page which show s the details of this course at Southampton. I hope I answered your question :smile:

Hi 👋
I am wanting to apply to child and mental health nursing for next years intake.
You say you have applied to a mixture of child and mental health courses, can I ask how you went about writing your personal statement to reflect your interest in both fields? I'm just worried, for example, if I write about wanting to do children's nursing I would then get turned down for the mental health course and vise versa. As like you say there isn't that many universities offering the dual degree and I really don't want to jeopardise any offers.
Thanks ☺

Reply 4

Vam1970

13

That would be so hard to do as if I was looking to recruit a child branch nurse I would want them to be committed to that totally and as child branch nursing is more competitive due to fewer applications I would write my personal statement for that one as I feel mental health nursing is not as sought after, however with increased grant MH &learning disabilities I’m not sure if that will change this year.
My children’s nursing course has an option to study CAHMS in the last year.
I don’t know if it’s possible to write an application that covers both duel options make that it tricky.

Reply 5

oliviasibleyx

10

Original post by Khloeh

Hi 👋
I am wanting to apply to child and mental health nursing for next years intake.
You say you have applied to a mixture of child and mental health courses, can I ask how you went about writing your personal statement to reflect your interest in both fields? I'm just worried, for example, if I write about wanting to do children's nursing I would then get turned down for the mental health course and vise versa. As like you say there isn't that many universities offering the dual degree and I really don't want to jeopardise any offers.
Thanks ☺

Hey!!
I understand your struggle, I faced that issue when writing my personal statement. I was advised by my school's career advisor to write my personal statement for general nursing rather than a specific branch, so that's what I did. I got offers at all my universities with just a general personal statement so they clearly didn't mind. One of the universities did ask me to write a revised personal statement more directed towards children's nursing (I was only applying to children's at this uni) but this was very easy because all I had to do was change phrases in my personal statement and add a few points specific to children's nursing and then they gave me an offer. I hope that helped, if you have any more questions feel free to ask, I'd be happy to help :smile:

Reply 6

moosec

13

From what I've seen in terms of preceptor posts after graduation (where I am in the UK anyway), CAMHS posts may be filled by an applicant with either a Children's or Mental Health Nursing degree.
My friend who qualified with a MH Nursing degree has now secured a post in a CAMHS PICU. Others in her MH course have gone into CAMHS EDU's and community teams.

I think your choice of course depends on what you want as an outcome of your degree and your interests regarding what you want to fill your 3 years of study with outside of CYP mental health (as children & young people's mental health, of course, won't be everything within your course regardless of if its children's or MH branch.) :smile:

A lot of the focus on a children's nursing course will be things such as complex care, sick children, children with long term conditions, palliative and end of life care. There are usually a couple of modules within the degree on children’s mental health (usually from 2nd year onwards.) So if you're also considering jobs in fields such as children's medical or surgical nursing, or have no interest whatsoever in mental health outside of children & adolescents, then it's probably wise to choose children's nursing.
Mental Health will focus on different evidenced based therapeutic approaches (pharmacological and psychological), how to apply these to the clinical setting to provide specialist care for mental health patients, and you can expect to have placements in acute and enduring conditions, older adults, community care, continuing care and rehabilitation, specialist mental healthcare (such as substances, eating disorders etc), and care of children and young people.
So if your interests lie in mental health as a field and you're looking for experience in mental health across every placement you do, it's wise to choose mental health.

You've also mentioned in your OP about learning difficulties... if you want to work with learning difficulties specifically, have you considered Learning Disability Nursing? :smile:

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 7

Khloeh

9

Original post by oliviasibleyx

Hey!!
I understand your struggle, I faced that issue when writing my personal statement. I was advised by my school's career advisor to write my personal statement for general nursing rather than a specific branch, so that's what I did. I got offers at all my universities with just a general personal statement so they clearly didn't mind. One of the universities did ask me to write a revised personal statement more directed towards children's nursing (I was only applying to children's at this uni) but this was very easy because all I had to do was change phrases in my personal statement and add a few points specific to children's nursing and then they gave me an offer. I hope that helped, if you have any more questions feel free to ask, I'd be happy to help :smile:

Ah that's great! Thank you so much ☺️ Can I ask which branch you chose in the end?

Reply 8

oliviasibleyx

10

Original post by Khloeh

Ah that's great! Thank you so much ☺️ Can I ask which branch you chose in the end?

I have chosen to do a dual degree that involves both. It's a 4 year masters degree at Southampton where you do child and mental health nursing so at the end of it I can register as a child or a mental health nurse. I couldn't decide between the 2 and because I want to go into CAMHS eventually, I figured a year extra to get both degrees was the best way for me to go!!

Reply 9

lou987

8

If you are thinking of working in camhs I’d point towards more the MH degree as this can be broadly applied, but the Child degree tends to be more physical health settings (although a couple of people I know have had camhs placements) although the dual field degree would be your best bet I think!

Reply 10

lou987

8

To add to the above - I am in my 3rd year at Southampton studying Child and Mental health nursing - If you have any questions feel free to ask :smile:

Reply 11

macfc2004

1

Original post by lou987

To add to the above - I am in my 3rd year at Southampton studying Child and Mental health nursing - If you have any questions feel free to ask :smile:

Hi I was just wondering what made you pick this uni over the others ? X

Children nursing first or Mental Health Nursing

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