Solent or Southampton for MH Nursing?

Bumping!

Had my interview with Southampton today and it went very well; I was basically told I should expect an offer without being directly told, if that makes sense. The interview was helpful to have done, but I am still facing this dilemma - I guess what it boils down to is this: should I choose based on reputation/prestige of the uni, or based on which has the more exciting modules? Both will send me to the same hospitals for placements etc. so that doesn't help me decide either.

Congratulations on your interview going well

Bear in mind that as for basically all allied health professions, where you study doesn't really matter because generally the main employer of graduates from any uni is going to be the same - the NHS. They won't be prejudicing applicants on the basis of where they studied, and so it's really more up to you based on which you prefer.

Since in both cases you'll be based in Southampton, and probably in the same hospital(s) for any clinical placements, and given a highly regulated profession like nursing will require all nursing degrees cover a lot of the same essential material, just with different ways of structuring/teaching/assessing it, I would be surprised if your experiences at the two were hugely different in many respects as a result.

Consider also then though, that the modules may not be so different as it appears; while the Southampton modules do not have particularly imaginative names, it does look like the cover essentially the same topics and learning objectives, just not necessarily grouped in the same way per module. Perhaps contact them to get more information about the modules on offer and the topics taught; Southampton provides info on the assessment format and learning outcomes etc in theirs, while Solent seems to just offer slightly vaguer general descriptions. Maybe ask Solent for info on those things for their modules?

@moosec hope you don't mind me tagging, but I seem to remember you have some experience with being a MH nurse!

I've spoken to a few people both inside and outside of nursing about this but I'm kind of coming up undecided.

I know this might sound silly given that I've applied for nursing and will need to learn a lot of it either way, but the clinical/biological stuff isn't what draws me to nursing; the having a therapeutic relationship with people and my interest in mental health does. This leads me to think 'just' MH nursing might be better, but a lot of people (albeit not the ones who are currently nurses) around me are saying the MNurs Child and Mental Health seems a better route into CAMHs (my likely end goal) than just MH BSc. While I guess having both might have its advantages for CAMHs role applications, I know of a couple of MH nurses who have got into CAMHs without Child, and ultimately I'm not sure I want to have to do lots of non-MH placements, study even more of the biological stuff than I strictly need to (not sure if courses would differ there), or end up in a non-MH heavy role.

Any thoughts, pretty please? 🤞

Hello! it depends on what you want to get out of your qualification/where your interests lie etc I suppose! You’re definitely weighing up the right things in terms of the amount of MH/children’s physical health placements, the course content you’ll be studying etc!
It may be worth looking into the module lists for the courses to see what sorts of things you’ll be learning to help you make a decision... or seeing if there are any student nurses on social media studying the relevant fields at your chosen universities who you can follow to see what their journeys were/are like (lots of student nurses have nursing instagrams/twitters)

But yes, most CAMHS nurses I’ve personally come across have a Bachelors MH Nursing qualification so it definitely is possible to get a CAMHS role with the BSc!