University of Notre Dame Australia
Master of Nursing (Mental Health)
- Delivery: Online
- Study Level: Postgraduate
- Duration: 18 months
Empower nurses to specialise in mental health care, blending advanced clinical skills with compassionate, evidence-based practices to support diverse communities.
Course overview
Suppose you are a practising registered nurse who has already completed either a Graduate Certificate in Mental Health Nursing or a Graduate Diploma of Mental Health Nursing and Allied Health. In that case, this degree is a fantastic way to extend your formal qualifications. Held across two semesters, this program allows you to specialise in the field of mental health. You will be able to formalise your qualifications and develop your knowledge of mental health to deliver a higher level of care.
The Master of Nursing (Mental Health) program aims to enhance nurses' knowledge and confidence in conducting independent studies. Students will learn the pragmatic considerations of systematic inquiry by adopting an experiential, inquiry-based approach to learning. The program will promote debate and discussion, enabling the student to become a competent consumer of evidence-based practice and contribute knowledge to the nursing discipline. Questions arising from the student’s nursing practice will address contemporary healthcare issues.
This online program will evaluate evidence to make informed judgments about the robustness and utility of the findings for nursing practice. It will also provide an essential link between research and nursing practice and encourage the development of a culture of collaborative studies between practice and academia.
Key facts
What you will study
The Master of Nursing (Mental Health) program requires the completion of the following courses equivalent to 300 units of credit. Unless otherwise indicated, each course is valued at 25 units of credit.
- Interpersonal communication
- Evidence-Based Practice
- Ethical Issues in Professional Life
- Supervised Dissertation Nursing (50 units of credit)
- Project Proposal Development (50 units of credit)
Entry requirements
The program is open to registered nurses who have a previous degree or those who do not have a degree but have accumulated a wealth of experience in nursing.
English language requirements
You must be able to demonstrate two years of full-time secondary, vocational or tertiary level study in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, South Africa, the United Kingdom or the United States of America. If you do not meet these requirements, you must sit the Academic IELTS exam and score at least 7.0 overall and 7.0 in each sub-section (reading, writing, listening and speaking) to qualify for entry into the Master of Nursing (Clinical Nursing). This applies to Permanent Residents and Australian citizens whose first language is not English and who have not completed two years of full-time academic study in Australia. IELTS results will need to be verified by the Admissions Office before an offer of a place can be made. The Admissions Office reserves the right to ask for IELTS results from any applicant.
Contact the university for more information.
Recognition of Prior Learning
Advanced Standing is a way the university recognises the studies you've already completed. Instead of repeating subjects, you get credit for them, saving you time and money. You might be eligible for this credit if you've completed studies at any university (even here at Notre Dame), including single subjects. Contact the university for more information.
Outcomes
Learning outcomes
Upon successful completion of the Master of Nursing (Mental Health), graduates will be able to:
- Analyse and interpret nursing scenarios to provide evidence-based quality practice.
- Use reflective practice techniques in a range of learning activities to promote professional practice.
- Apply leadership and collaborative skills within an interprofessional healthcare environment.
- Apply concepts of global, medico-legal, social and cultural diversity.
- Identify the distinguishing characteristics of nursing research in terms of purposes, underlying assumptions and available methodologies.
- Explore the principal paradigms employed in health and nursing research and differentiate between them in terms of their epistemological bases and their respective strengths and limitations in addressing different types of research.
- Formulate research-friendly questions and align those questions with appropriate research designs, data collection procedures, techniques and data analysis.
- Critique examples of research studies and models, identifying strengths and limitations of design that might threaten the internal validity and generalisability (external validity) of the findings.
- Identify important ethical or other issues when conducting nursing research and apply value-appropriate safeguards to the interests of all stakeholders involved in a research project.
- Apply advanced technical skills and reflective practice within the domain of nursing research.
Career outcomes
With a Master of Nursing (Mental Health), you can pursue careers as a nurse unit manager, nurse practitioner, nurse educator or mental health nurse.
Fees and FEE-HELP
Estimated total fee in 2025: From $36,975 (domestic full-fee paying place)
The estimated total fee is calculated based on a full-time study load of 300 units of credit.
A student’s annual fee may vary per:
- The number of courses studied.
- Choice of programs.
- Credit from previous study or work experience.
- Eligibility for government-funded loans.
Student fees shown are subject to change. Contact the university directly to confirm.
FEE-HELP loans are available to assist eligible full-fee-paying domestic students with the cost of a university course.
