This blog post follows on from the last post all about being a mental health patient and a student nurse, you can check that out here. When I got that acceptance letter from my university to do mental health nursing, I was absolutely over the moon. However, that happiness couldn’t be fully embraced because I was absolutely petrified over my occupational health check. Through speaking to other students and the feedback I had from my previous post, I’ve found that feeling concerned about occupational health isn’t unique, so here’s my experience and some advice.
When I got accepted to university to do a Bsc Mental Health Nursing degree, one of the first things I had to do was go to my doctors in order for them to sign my occupation health from. When I began my degree I was still under the community mental health team and although generally stable, I was seeing a psychiatrist every 6 months. The form was about half an A4 piece of paper. My doctor wrote every single detail of my journey with mental health services, the medication I was taking, when I was first referred, my admission to a mental health ward, my physical health, absoutely everything, he had even attached several extra pages. It’s safe to say that after having that occupational form back, I was even more concerned I would be told I cannot nurse due to my history of mental illness.
I sent my occupational form to the university and then spent plenty of late nights worrying and searching the internet to find other peoples experiences of occupational health. I even called my psychiatrist to ask if he felt I would be okay to do the degree, he was amazing and said he would discuss my history with the university if needed, as in his professional opinion he felt I was well enough to do it. The internet searching, however, was not so helpful, I came across endless posts, blogs and even articles by people saying those with a history of mental illness shouldn’t be able to be mental health nurses.
Fast forward a few weeks and I’m sitting in a lecture hall at the university on my first day. Still the excitement was tinged by the fact I hadn’t heard from occupational health and as I sat there listening to the nursing team discuss the next 3 years all I could think was ‘I still may be told I can’t do this degree!’ It was about the third week when my cohort saw occupational health to have our Hep B jabs. As I signed in, I was asked to chat with the occupational nurse, however, none of the others in my cohort were asked and it’s safe to say I was pooping myself.
The occupational health nurse was lovely, she simply asked me if anything had changed since my doctor wrote the occupational health form, nothing had so she asked me what the occupational health team can do to support me. I was honest and said what I was concerned about and we agreed to see how it goes and if I ever need any support to email the team or talk to my personal tutor and that was that I had my Hep B jab and off I went, finally able to get excited for the next 3 years of my nursing degree!
I guess the point of this blog post is to say that if your a student nurse or thinking about becoming a nurse with a history of mental illness please do not panic like I did. Although I am aware that every university or NHS trust occupational health department is different I’ve met many other students and qualified nurses from other universities and trusts who have also had positive experiences. You may be asked to see the occupational health team every 3 months or so to check in but if your mental health is at a point where you are able to work with valuable service users and there is no concern for their safety or yours then occupational health will simply be there to support you through the degree. Their job at the end of the day is to support us as whilst also keeping the patient’s safety and care at the centre. My twitter and inbox are always open if you want any advice or a listening ear. Hope this has helped someone feel less anxious about occupational health or educate them on the occupational health process.
The ramblings of a Student Mental Health Nurse 
What a great post! The amount of times I needed reassuring for this kind of thing. (not nursing but the same concept) there isn’t enough of this kind of post on the Web so shared 🙂 – abi x
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Thank you so much! I agree, when I was searching a few years ago all I found was negative posts and in turn it made me even more anxious. I felt the web needed a positive story added to it in regards to occupational health clearance. Xx
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