Graduate Mental Health & Mixed Mental Health/General Nursing Program

The Mental Health program offers new graduates the opportunity to develop their clinical and interpersonal skills, to promote the wellbeing of individuals in the exciting field of mental health nursing.

General Information

Mental Health graduate nurses will have the opportunity to experience various areas within mental health, including inpatient and community settings. There are two streams available for Mental Health graduates:

1. Mental Health pure stream – all rotations are completed in Mental Health
2. Mental Health/General Nursing mixed stream – six-months in inpatient Mental Health and six-months in acute, subacute, or an emergency ward.

Those applying for the mixed mental health/general program, in addition to a mental health area, will get the opportunity for a rotation in a general nursing area. After the satisfactory completion of the graduate year there will be the opportunity to continue onto the Mental Health Postgraduate Program.  

Each Mental Health Graduate Nurse will have the opportunity to participate in individual clinical supervision with experienced mental health clinicians and in-group reflective practice sessions to assist with professional growth through reflective practice. 

Mental Health nursing is an exciting, dynamic and fascinating area of nursing. It requires a combination of specialised knowledge, reflection, clinical and interpersonal skills to promote a client’s wellbeing and recovery.  Peninsula Health provides a wide diversity of small but varied services.

The graduate year at Peninsula Health offers experiential learning opportunities, which will provide graduates with credit towards their Masters of Mental Health Nursing.

The duration of the program is 12 months, with an intake in January and July. The graduate position is an ongoing permanent part time at 0.8 or eight shifts a fortnight.

All Mental Health graduate nurses complete two rotations of six-months.

Support

During your graduate year you will be supported by a large group of clinicians, you will have a preceptor that you will work with throughout each rotation and they will be able to support you with ward specific questions. Graduate nurses will be matched with a clinical supervisor and participate in clinical supervision session throughout the year.

Graduates will also be able to attend fortnightly debrief sessions throughout the year and support from the Early in Career team.

Our Orientation program is an eight day program held over two weeks. The program consists of a four day orientation to Peninsula Health Mental Health services and four supernumerary days in clinical areas. For all subsequent rotations there will be further supernumerary days provided.

Continued education

There are nine study days during the MH graduate programs with mixture of learning styles including online and face-to-face learning.

All Mental Health graduates are required to be committed to enrolment in a Masters of Mental Health. The graduate program includes clinical placement time, a clinical portfolio and clinical assessments that will enable application for Advanced Standing towards the Post Graduate Diploma with Universities linked to Peninsula Health such as Monash university, RMIT, La Trobe University and Federation University.

Further information

For more information on this program, download our information booklet.