Though noble, NMC’s standards are an assault on mental health nursing.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) Standards of Proficiency for Registered Nurses have noble aims and yet their impact has been an assault on mental health nursing as a specialism. Outnumbered in the profession as a whole, mental health nursing has often been undervalued and misunderstood, and the idea of what it means to be a nurse is becoming synonymous with that of general adult nursing. 'Generic' nurse education is not truly generic. While the NMC set standards, these are then interpreted by higher education institutions (HEIs). This has led to a postcode lottery with HEIs offering different depth of mental health content