Nursing professionals

How to become a registered mental health nurse

Official title: Registered mental health nurses

Also called: Staff nurse, Registered nurse, Psychiatric nurse, Mental health nurse, Community psychiatric nurse, Community mental health nurse

Registered mental health nurses support and care for people with a range of mental health conditions, in hospital and community settings, and help them towards recovery and management of their conditions.

Main tasks

Provides day to day support for and, in some cases, physical care for patients with a variety of mental health conditions
Participates in the preparation for physical and psychological treatment of patients with mental health conditions
Monitors patient’s progress, encourages patients to participate in different therapies
Administers drugs and gives other forms of treatment
Works with other mental health professionals
Provides information to patients and their families about a patient's condition, how to manage it and possible treatments

How to become one

Entrants will need a degree level qualification in mental health nursing, an enhanced DBS check, and registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

Ways in

University: Nursing & Midwifery degrees, Offered by 16 universities in the UK

Pay · Outlook

Median full-time pay: £42,692 a year The middle half earn £37,229 to £48,074.
About 56,600 people work in this job now, and about 62,000 are projected by 2035. (+9.6%)

Questions people ask

How do I become a registered mental health nurse?

Entrants will need a degree level qualification in mental health nursing, an enhanced DBS check, and registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

How much does a registered mental health nurse earn in the UK?

Median full-time pay is £42,692 a year (Office for National Statistics). The middle half earn £37,229 to £48,074.

Is a registered mental health nurse a growing career in the UK?

Yes. Employment is projected to grow 10% by 2035, from about 56,600 to about 62,000 people (Department for Education).

Do you need a degree to become a registered mental health nurse?

Usually. 75% of people in this job hold a bachelor's degree or higher.

Sources

Office for National Statistics: Annual Population Survey: employment by occupation (April 2025 to March 2026), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: SOC 2020 Volume 1: structure and descriptions (2026-08-27 edition), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Department for Education: Skills Imperative 2035: employment projections by occupation (2021 to 2035 (Warwick IER / Cambridge Econometrics)), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03
Office for National Statistics: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Table 14 (2025 provisional), OGL v3.0, retrieved 2026-10-03

Updated 2026-10-03

Graduate outcomes: Discover Uni dataset, HESA (www.hesa.ac.uk), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). Aggregated by subject and adapted by Peernovo.