The Development of a New Mental Health Pre‐Registration Nursing Curriculum: Reclaiming Professional Identity and Field Specific Content

This paper outlines the design and development of a 3-year undergraduate pre-registration mental health nursing curriculum in the United Kingdom. It resists the trend towards generic nurse education, reclaims mental health field-specific identity and equips future nurses with the knowledge, skills and values to meet the complex mental health needs of contemporary populations. International literature reflects growing concern over the dilution of mental health nursing knowledge and the erosion of professional identity, largely attributed to generic curriculum models and standardised regulatory frameworks. Critics argue that the dominance of adult-centric education compromises field-specific learning, perpetuating a theory-practice gap and leaving graduates underprepared for mental health practice. Calls for reform have intensified globally, yet practical examples of curriculum redesign to address these issues remain limited. Issues were approached through a comprehensive review and redesign of the current mental health nursing curriculum considering relevant pedagogical theory and international critiques of genericism in nursing education. The authors, as academic leads for the curriculum redesign, embedded field-specific modules, innovative assessments, restorative supervision and mental health-focused simulation. Heutagogy informed the pedagogical framework, aiming to produce self-determined, critically reflexive practitioners. The redesigned curriculum challenges genericism and reinstates mental health-specific content, with assessments and simulations contextualised to authentic practice. This approach strengthens professional identity, reduces reliance on artificial intelligence generated work through dialogical assessments and promotes critical thinking essential for ethical, person-centred care. Future evaluation will focus on student retention, satisfaction and preparedness for practice.