Impact of Pre-Registration Education on Mental Health Nursing Practice

Running head: MENTAL HEALTH 1
Mental Health
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

MENTAL HEALTH 2
Mental Health
Mental health nursing refers to the process of administering diagnosis,
prevention and treatment of mental illness (Study.com, 2018). The mental health
nurses interact and work with individuals, groups and families with mental
disabilities. Mental health nursing is an advanced practice within the nursing field.
It is, therefore, necessary for any student wishing to undertake the mental health
nursing career to be a registered Nurse and obtain a master's degree specializing in
the career. Additionally, before caring for the patients, it is significant for the
students to be successful in their National Council Licensure Examination for the
registered nurses to become Licensed Nurses. This examination is usually
undertaken before commencing the master’s degree program in nursing. Despite the
huge research that has been contacted on the mental health nursing career, very
little has been tackled on the impact of pre-registration education to the nursing
practice. According to the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (2010), a
Mental Health Nurse is a registered health specialist who holds professional
specification qualifications in mental health. To provide quality customer-centred
mental healthcare to patients, nursing staff require an adequate foundation in mental
health nursing (Farrell, Crookes, Usher, McCann, Moxham, 2011). This makes it
significant for nursing schools to constantly invest in mental nursing education.
Therefore, this essay narrows down to the impact of pre-registration education to
the nursing practice within the mental health nursing profession.
Pre-registration mental health nursing education has a significant impact on the
motivation of practitioners during nursing services delivery. According to the recent research by
Happell, Robins and Gough. (2008), most students enter into pre-registration courses without an

MENTAL HEALTH 3
incentive in the mental health nursing career. However, with exposure to mental health content
and clinical experiences throughout the undergraduate course, it has been argued that most of the
students consider mental health nursing as a viable career upon graduation (Happell & Rope,
2003). It is through constant education that the school nurses join other health professionals to
bring a specialized understanding of the cause like approaching problem amelioration through
motivation and attitude transformation and system strategies (Adelman & Taylor, 2015). This
assertion indicates the relevance of pre-registration education in enhancing motivation among
mental nursing professionals. According to Germaine and Jenkins (2018), solution-oriented
learning is an alternative approach to promote resilience and motivation among the mental
nursing staff. Therefore, incorporating solution-based learning in pre-registration education has
generated a significant impact on the nurses’ resilience and motivation in the nursing practice.
Motivating the mental health workers is not just the ultimate end of pre-registration education.
The motivational impact has significantly led to a diversity of other implications in the nursing
practice. For instance, motivation has been closely linked to job satisfaction which results in the
retention of the workers in their work area.
The health worker retention, on the other hand, results in a reduction in the costs likely to
be incurred to recruit, select, hire and orient new workers within the health care system. Apart
from minimizing the recruitment costs, retention of workers in the mental health care system
minimizes the likelihood of vacant posts. In so doing, efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery
of health services are promoted due to the availability of the respective personnel within the
mental health care entity. Countries with shortages in health workers have presented serious
ramifications for the health of individuals in such nations. On the other hand, the motivation and
satisfactory among the health workers, nurses and other health practitioners have promoted

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smooth running of the entire health care system. Unmotivated workers have a huge impact on
individual facility and the entire health system (HRH, 2015). It is proven that most of the
unmotivated health workers leave their places of work (especially in rural areas) to other areas
where the incentive is guaranteed. Others leave their professionalism to venture into other more
appealing job opportunities. Therefore, it would be irrational to hesitate to mention the fact that
preregistration education's ability to transform students' motivation in the mental nursing
profession has played a significant role in enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the
nursing practice.
Preregistration education plays a significant role in filling the gaps within the mental
health profession. According to Happell (2009), there has been a chronic shortage of qualified
staff as well as the ageing workforce in the mental health nursing profession. Therefore, it is
significant to ensure that adequate personnel are recruited in future. However, the attainment of
this goal is the fundamental issue within the mental nursing profession. As a strategic approach
in promoting adequate qualified personnel within the mental nursing speciality, Moxham,
Robison and Pegg (2011), suggest promotion of adequate and positive theoretical and clinical
learning experiences among preregistration students. Therefore, it is clear that the future of the
mental nursing profession depends solely on the effectiveness of pre-registration education.
Preregistration education has a positive impact on promoting effective communication within
the mental health nursing speciality. Usually, mental illness affects a variety of individuals who
come from different family backgrounds and social entities. Therefore, the nursing staff must
have adequate communication skills that will enable them to work with people with varying
norms and social entities (Furnes, Kvaal, & Hoye, 2018). In such a case, preregistration
education plays a significant role as it provides the nursing practitioners with an opportunity to