Deakin University
Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing
- Delivery: Online
- Study Level: Postgraduate
- Duration: 24 months
Support the growing demand for mental health care in Australia. Enhance your nursing practice and prepare for advanced roles.
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 practising 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, primary mental health conditions, person-centred approaches and therapeutic and pharmacological interventions.
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 two course electives.
During your first year, you’ll gain an advanced understanding of comprehensive nursing assessment and its fundamental role 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 a 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.
To support consumers living with mental health challenges, nurses must be resilient and able to thrive despite 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 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 two course electives. You can tailor your degree and 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 various community and inpatient settings.
(People aged 16-85 years) National Study of Mental Health and Well-being, Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2020-2022.
CSP Subsidised Fees Available
This program has a limited quota of Commonwealth Supported Places (CSP). The indicative CSP price is calculated based on first year fees for EFT. The actual fee may vary if there are choices in electives or majors.
Key facts
What you will study
To complete the Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing, you must pass eight credit points. The number of credit points required may vary, depending on your entry point or how much credit you receive as recognition of prior learning (RPL) based on your professional experience and previous qualifications.
An eight-credit-point Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing includes:
- DAI001 Academic Integrity and Respect at Deakin (0-credit-point compulsory unit) in their first study period
- Six credit points of core units
- Two credit points of course elective units
- Academic Integrity and Respect at Deakin (0 credit points)
- Biopsychosocialspiritual Mental Health Nursing Assessment
- Person-Centred Approaches to Engagement in Mental Health Nursing
- Recognising and Understanding Mental Illness
- Therapeutic Interventions in Mental Health Nursing
- The Physical Health Needs of Persons with Mental Illness
- Sustaining the Mental Health Nursing Workforce
Entry requirements
Selection is based on a holistic consideration of your academic merit, work experience, likelihood of success, availability of places, participation requirements, regulatory requirements and individual circumstances. You must meet the minimum academic and English language proficiency requirements to be considered for selection, but this does not guarantee admission.
Please note that this course has limited places and entry is competitive. Applicants are strongly encouraged to submit an application as soon as possible. If all places are filled, applications for this course may close prior to the published closing date.
Academic requirements
To be considered for admission to this degree, you will need to meet all the following criteria:
- Bachelor of Nursing degree or equivalent.
- Registration as a registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia with no conditions or restrictions or registered as a registered nurse in the country of practice or equivalent.
English language proficiency requirements
To meet the English language proficiency requirements of this course, you will need to demonstrate at least one of the following:
- Bachelor's degree from a recognised English-speaking country.
- IELTS overall score of 6.5 (with no band score less than 6.0) or equivalent.
- CEFR Proficient User Level C1.
- Other evidence of English language proficiency (learn more about other ways to satisfy the requirements).
Recognition of Prior Learning
The University aims to provide students with as much credit as possible for approved prior study or informal learning that exceeds the course's standard entrance requirements and is within the constraints of the course regulations. Students must complete a minimum of one-third of the course at Deakin University or four credit points, whichever is greater. For certificates, including graduate certificates, a minimum of two credit points within the course must be completed at Deakin.
You can also refer to the recognition of prior learning (RPL) system, which outlines the credit that may be granted towards a Deakin University degree and how to apply for credit.
Students holding an approved specialist certificate from the former Nurses Board of Victoria may apply for up to four credit points of Recognition of prior learning towards the Master's.
Outcomes
Learning outcomes
- Critically analyse and apply theories and evidence-informed practice to facilitate recovery-oriented, trauma-informed and consumer-centred mental health nursing care.
- Apply advanced therapeutic nursing communication skills and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to promote advocacy, agency and self-determination among mental health consumers, families and carers.
- Maintain and advance mental health nursing knowledge and practice by critically analysing mental health research using digital technologies.
- Apply advanced critical thinking nursing skills through the analysis, evaluation and critique of evidence-based sources to inform clinical decision making.
- Assess, plan and deliver mental health nursing care to diverse consumers with complex mental health needs.
- Practice independently, demonstrating accountability and personal responsibility, whilst reflecting on nursing practice.
- Collaborate with mental health consumers and the multidisciplinary team to optimise consumer outcomes and engagement.
- Maintain professional and ethical standards of nursing practice whilst recognising diverse cultural and community perspectives.
Career outcomes
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, 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
Fees and CSP
Indicative first-year tuition fee in 2025: $4,627 (Commonwealth Supported Place)
The indicative first-year fee is the approximate cost of enrolling in this course for one academic year, depending on the type of place you are offered, for example, a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP) or full-fee paying (FFP) place. For a graduate certificate, this is usually four units studied full-time over one term or part-time over two terms.
A student’s annual fee may vary by:
- The number of units studied per term.
- The choice of major or specialisation.
- Choice of units.
- Credit from previous study or work experience.
- Eligibility for government-funded loans.
Student fees shown are subject to change. Could you contact the university directly to confirm?
Commonwealth Supported Places
The Australian Government allocates a certain number of CSPS to the universities each year, which are then distributed to students based on merit.
If you're a Commonwealth Supported Student (CSS), you only need to pay some of your tuition fees. The student contribution amount is the balance once the government subsidy is applied. This means your costs are much lower.
Limited CSP spaces are offered to students enrolled in selected postgraduate courses.
Your student contribution amount is:
- Calculated per unit you're enrolled in.
- Depending on the study areas they relate to.
- Reviewed and adjusted each year.
HECS-HELP loans are available to CSP students to pay the student contribution amount.
FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee-paying domestic students with the cost of a university course.
