What do learning disability nurses do?

‘Are you a real nurse?’ and ‘So what does a learning disability nurse actually do?’: two questions that learning disability nurses are often asked.

A lack of awareness that learning disability nurses exist often underpins these questions. If you do not have personal experience of living with or supporting someone with a learning disability, you may not encounter learning disability nurses. We are often not visible in the sense that we may not wear nursing uniforms, we may not work in hospitals and many of the people we support are not ill. In other words: we do not conform to widespread views of who nurses are and what they do. Unfortunately, this means that many people do not know it is possible to become a learning disability nurse and recruitment to student courses can be challenging.

1 November is National Learning Disability Nurses’ Day: an opportunity to raise awareness and challenge (mis)perceptions regarding the roles of learning disability nurses. I want to take this opportunity, therefore, to answer the two questions posed above.

Recently, the RCN published a new definition of nursing, which highlights the safety critical nature of the profession and its use of evidence-based practice to promote ‘high quality person-centred care’. These are central elements of learning disability nursing: we are ‘real’ nurses in the context of this definition. We comprise one of the four fields of nursing alongside colleagues in mental health, child and adult nursing.

We may not always work with people who are ill, but we work alongside people who require additional support to be healthy and to access healthcare. We also support them when they experience physical and/or mental ill health. We work across the lifespan and in all settings where people with learning disabilities are – homes, respite settings, primary care, acute care, colleges, and prisons to name a few. We also work at many levels – the individual, the family, community, service, education, research and policy. Our role is to promote health and wellbeing.

So, whilst you may not always see us, we are there - and not just on the 1 November! Please take the opportunity to learn more about learning disability nursing and to tell others about it. Most importantly, make sure that you encourage those who want to work alongside people with learning disabilities to find out more about this field. It’s a great career and a decision I have never regretted taking in over 40 years.