Within an Australian setting, student nurses complete comprehensive university training, which covers mental health education and, in some instances, a subsequent mental health clinical placement. However, student nurses are reporting high levels of anxiety and fear during mental health clinical placement, impacting their educational opportunities, ultimately influencing their future registered nursing practice (Han et al., 2015; McKenzie et al., 2020). From these exisiting concerns, the Australian Government’s Productivity Commission into Mental Health (2020) recommended that health students complete their clinical placements within alternative environments, increasing their learning opportunities.

Utilising a Heideggerian phenomenological approach, our research sought to bring to light new understandings regarding the experiences of student nurses undertaking a mental health clinical placement within an alternative environment. For the purpose of our study, a therapeutic recreation environment was chosen. During this clinical placement, student nurses had direct contact with individuals with a lived experience of mental illness while undertaking therapeutic recreation activities such as the flying fox, archery, campfires and bush dances on a five-day, four-night long cabin based camp.

Throughout the individual semi-structured interviews and following data analysis, it was uncovered that positive, student focused mental health clinical placements within alternative environments have numerous professional and personal impacts on student nurses’ learning. Student nurses disclosed that through the process of learning direct from those with a lived experiences regarding mental health, they were able to develop their own personal understanding of how to manage their mental health when nursing. Through the outdoor camp environment and therapeutic recreation program, student nurses were also able to develop their own personal mental health related coping strategies and practice how they would implement them when practicing post registration. From our research, it is evident that alternative mental health clinical increase a student nurses mental health knowledge both professional and personally.