Online Master of Mental Health Nursing: Course Structure

The Academic Integrity Module will introduce you to academic integrity standards, so you’re informed about how to avoid plagiarism and academic misconduct.  You’ll complete four parts that cover academic misconduct and academic integrity decisions, such as cheating, plagiarism and collusion.  You’ll learn about the text-matching tool, Turnitin, that is used at La Trobe, how to get help and where to go to develop referencing skills.

In this subject students will extend their knowledge and application of therapeutic skills to make high level, independent clinical decisions. Students will analyse and consolidate complex communication skills required in specialist mental health practice. Students will combine interpersonal skills with evidence-based therapies to attain specialist skills required for therapeutic interventions relevant to their professional practice.

In this subject students will develop fundamental knowledge and skills required in clinical mental health practice. Students will develop comprehensive assessment and management skills and recognise the interrelationship between a person’s medical, social and psychological health. This subject provides a theoretical and practical foundation that prepares students for ethically oriented professional practice. This subject enables students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, and specialised clinical proficiency. Using independent judgment, you will plan, implement and evaluate practice in mental health contexts.

In this subject students will critically examine psychopathology, mental health diagnosis and associated co-morbidities. This subject enables students to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills to be clinically knowledgeable in assessment and diagnosis of mental illness. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) classification systems are critically evaluated.

In this subject, students will explore the complexities that exercising choice and control poses for people with mental illness and develop knowledge and skills such as supported decision making and recovery orientated practice. It will also explore the challenges and strategies for ensuring the collective voices of people with mental illness are heard about systemic issues.

In this subject, you will learn processes to develop quality improvement initiatives in the workplace. You will plan a quality improvement initiative based on your review of the literature and reflection on current workplace or community needs. This subject will develop your problem-solving skills and help you create an appropriate and ethical design to address a real-world need.

In this subject, you learn how to critically review research literature, focusing on research methods, ethics and study findings or results. Through building skills in critical evaluation of research methods and results you will be able to compare papers relevant to a given topic and assess their suitability and relevance to specific problems. You will learn to judge whether research studies are appropriately designed to address the problems that they aim to solve or explore.

In this subject, you will compare and critique the approaches taken in the research literature to gain understanding of how others have approached research problems and insight into how evidence is developed and established into practice. You will also use a local example to consider how a recent initiative related to research has been incorporated into practice, with consideration of the barriers and enablers to implementation. You will reflect on the ways that recommendations from research are framed and consider the elements needed for successful approaches for the translation of evidence into practice.

In this subject, you will consolidate your learning by preparing a report of the findings from a quality improvement project, developing evidence-based practice recommendations suitable for the workplace. This practice-focused subject will teach you professional skills and allow you to showcase your skills to your peers and the broader community.