Mental health nursing identity: A critical analysis of the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council’s pre-registration syllabus change and subsequent move towards genericism

Abstract

In this paper, we explain how and why the philosophical changes to the pre-registration nursing
standards by the UK’s Nursing and Midwifery Council, have resulted in a paradigm shift for mental
health nursing. We critically examine the changes to nursing education standards and offer an analysis
of the problems associated with the shift towards a generic nursing syllabus. Said shift prioritises
physical health intervention, skills, procedures and tasks over the uniqueness of mental health
nursing. We argue that mental health nursing skills and qualities such as connection, genuine advocacy
and therapeutic-use-of-self have been undervalued and underrepresented by the new education
standards. We call on the profession and service users to join the discourse and inform future mental
health nursing identity. Ultimately, we call on the NMC to reconsider the underpinning principles of
the education standards and allot due consideration to the specific needs of the mental health nursing
profession.