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Mental Health Nursing
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Program Overview
This Graduate Certificate prepares Registered Nurses and Practical Nurses to promote mental health in diverse settings. Topics include mental health law, ethics, psychopharmacology, therapeutic modalities, and community care.
Program Details
Program Code
MNH1
Credential:
Ontario College Graduate Certificate
Start Dates
Locations
Availability
Part Time Offerings
Your Learning Experience
This Ontario College Graduate Certificate program equips Registered Nurses and Registered Practical Nurses with advanced knowledge and specialized skills to support individuals facing mental health and addiction challenges across diverse healthcare settings. Building on existing nursing competencies, key areas of study include the evolution of mental health nursing in Canada, safe and therapeutic environments, community mental health, law and ethics, mental health promotion across the lifespan and populations, psychopharmacology, and therapeutic modalities.
Delivered flexibly through a course-based enrolment model, the program also features a project-based practicum to enhance practical application for nurses balancing professional responsibilities. This program aligns with the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) Entry-to-Practice Mental Health and Addiction Competencies for Undergraduate Nursing Education in Canada and The Canadian Standards of Practice for Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing.
Admission Requirements
Applicants must be a member of the College of Nurses
Ontario (CNO) and in-good-standing.
After applying to this program on www.ontariocolleges.ca,
applicants must provide their:
1. full
name,
2. CNO
registration number,
3. OCAS
application number,
4.
Fanshawe student number, and
5. the
program code: MNH1
This information must be in PDF format and emailed to
regforms@fanshawec.ca.
Non-CNO Member applicants may still be able to
complete this program, if granted special permission.
After applying to this program on www.ontariocolleges.ca,
applicants falling into this category must provide:
1. an
up-to-date copy of their resume/cv, along with
2. a
300-700 word statement of intent that outlines their interest in
completing this program and how it connects to their personal or
professional goals.
In each document, applicants must include their:
1. full
name,
2. OCAS
application number,
3.
Fanshawe student number, and
4. the
program code: MNH1
Both documents must be in PDF format and emailed to
regforms@fanshawec.ca.
International Admission Equivalencies
Admission equivalencies for Fanshawe depends on your country of study. Please enter your location to see the requirements for your country below.
Courses
| Level 1 | ||||
| Take all of the following Mandatory Courses: | ||||
| NRSG-6056 | Mental Health Nursing Asylum Legacy | 4 | ||
This course is designed to foster understanding and critical thinking in relation to historical and contemporary approaches to mental health nursing and caring for clients with mental health challenges. Frameworks pertaining to mental health, mental illness, addiction, relational practice, psychosocial rehabilitation, and recovery are explored. Opportunities to critique and apply current mental health assessment techniques are provided. Advocacy and client-centeredness are key concepts integrated throughout this course and applied to practice contexts. | ||||
| NRSG-6057 | Concepts of Mental Health Promotion | 3 | ||
Framed within the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986), this course provides opportunities to explore concepts of community health nursing within the context of mental health. Students critique Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Levels of Prevention, with a course emphasis on Primary Prevention and "upstream" approaches. Community development and strengths-based approaches are applied to the promotion and maintenance of the mental health of individuals, families, and communities. This course is about creating health and exploring how communities contribute to positive mental well-being. | ||||
| NRSG-6058 | Mental Hlth Promotion Across Lifespan 1 | 3 | ||
Building on Foundational Concepts in Mental Health Promotion in Communities, this course critiques how social determinants of health, health equity, public policy, and stigma shape mental health. The focus will be on viewing mental illness from a socio-environmental lens and considering what is needed to promote and maintain mental well-being across the life span. | ||||
| NRSG-6059 | Mental Hlth Promotion Across Lifespan 2 | 3 | ||
Building on Mental health promotion across the lifespan I, students have opportunities to deepen their understanding of selected populations of complex aggregates through critical application of social justice-based health promotion. Attention to public policy and systems-level advocacy are critiqued, explored, and applied to practice with selected populations. | ||||
| SFTY-6007 | Safe Spaces in Practice Settings | 3 | ||
This course provides the opportunity to deconstruct the concept of safety as it relates to self and others in the context of nursing, specifically with clients experiencing mental health challenges. Topics include peer-support, trauma-informed care, as well as vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue. Safety practices of risk assessment and crisis intervention across community and institutional settings are explored and critiqued. Completion of NRSG-6056 Mental Health Nursing in Canada: The Legacy of the Asylum is strongly recommended before registering in this course. | ||||
| NRSG-6060 | Global Context of Mental Health Nursing | 3 | ||
This course provides opportunities to develop an understanding of how diverse contexts shape the mental health of individuals, families, and communities. Similarities and differences in mental health nursing and standards of care across diverse global contexts are explored. Students will explore and critique how values, culture, policies, and models of care shape practice within and across countries. This systems-level analysis provides students with opportunities to identify, compare, and critique best practices to envision possibilities for change within the Canadian health care system. | ||||
| PHRM-6008 | Psychopharmacology | 3 | ||
This course will explore the physiological principles of pharmacotherapy and will review a range of medications as well as complementary and alternative medicines used in the care of individuals experiencing mental health challenges. The course will cover the assessment and safe, ethical administration and management of medications used to treat mental illness conditions of clients across the lifespan. | ||||
| BSCI-6030 | Addictions, Substance Use & Misuse | 3 | ||
This course explores historical, contemporary, and cultural contexts of addiction and substance use and misuse. The psychological and physiological effects of addiction and substance use and misuse are examined in the context of mental health and mental illness. The course explores the personal, family, and system effects of addiction and substance use and misuse and current treatment and harm reduction strategies. | ||||
| LAWS-6041 | Mental Health Law & Ethics | 4 | ||
This course reviews the Mental Health Act and Criminal Code of Canada and their influence on the delivery of mental health services to individuals and families across the lifespan. Concepts explored include legal responsibilities of organizations and nurses, use of detention/restraint, consent and capacity, substitute decision-making, community treatment orders, the forensic system, advocacy, rights advice, risk assessment, confidentiality, stigma, and the culturally safe, ethical care of individuals in a variety of settings. | ||||
| NRSG-6061 | Therapeutic Modalities | 4 | ||
Students have opportunities to develop an understanding of nursing interventions within the scope of nursing practice in Ontario, including crisis intervention, motivational interviewing, solution-focused therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy. In addition, the course reviews common physical therapies, both historic and contemporary including psychosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, phototherapy, and vagus nerve stimulation with each. Experiential learning in individual counselling and group facilitation is provided in case simulation and course assignments. | ||||
| FLDP-6037 | Mental Health Nursing: Project Practicum | 3.2 | ||
This project-based practicum course provides learners with the opportunity to choose between one of two areas of mental health practice to apply theoretical knowledge within practical settings. Learners have opportunities to integrate mental health and wellness concepts with practice by developing and maintaining therapeutic relationships, conceptualizing, planning care and promoting wellness. Working within the context of mental health care and/or community, learners will have opportunities to engage with clients and the intra/interprofessional team to assume a leadership role and advance knowledge and practice. | ||||