Mental healthcare is an extremely important service offered by healthcare. Often presenting mental health teams with different problems every day, and with no two cases being alike, it can be a demanding yet rewarding sector to be involved in. Like many areas of healthcare, this whole sector would fall apart if it wasn’t for the constant dedication, professionalism and commitment of nurses. Mental health nurse jobs can vary from role to role, based on things such as location and type of patients. In this article, I will look at the different types of jobs there are within mental health nursing.
One of the most common roles would be a mental health nurse based in a hospital. A lot of the time, they will be expected to work within part of a 24 hour rotating shift. This will include weekends and evenings. If you value your social free time, this may not be the route for you, as the chances of doing weekends and evenings are very high, and a regular routine cannot be expected.
Mental health nurse can also work within the community. This can involve being based at a GP surgery or making house calls, when necessary, therefore it’s a requirement for community nurses to have a full drivers license. Unlike the jobs within hospitals, these ones will often have more of a regularity to them. Meaning working a normal week, usually in sync with the hours held by the GP surgery a mental health nurse is based in. Within the UK, the way mental healthcare is delivered has changed, which has put more emphasis of the role of community care within mental health, therefore many of nursing jobs within this sector are community based.
Nurses may also find themselves employed through an agency rather than the NHS. THis can often offer higher pay, but less job security, and things such as holiday and sick pay are nonexistent. The benefits though are that you can choose your hours more freely, and enjoy a variety of different workplaces. Thus, if you are a newly graduated mental health nurse, this can be a great way to get an overview of the different types of jobs available to you within this sector. Finally, there are also bank nurses. This is similar to an agency, in the fact that nurses choose per shift their hours. Yet there is more job security as you are employed by the NHS, but have the flexibility of a zero hours working contract.
Finally, there are also a plethora of roles within the private sector, such as with care homes, rehabilitation centres and within various private organisations that offer mental support.
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