Wednesday 20 August 2014

Ignorance is not bliss.

So only a few more weeks to go until induction.
I've been trying to get my blog out there and make and more people aware of the learning disability branch of nursing. Especially when I am still seeing articles of health care professionals (hcp's) not understanding or even trying to, those with a learning disability. It has to be one of the most annoying things that those who are meant to be trained and work following the 6 c's of nursing ignoring all that?
In the past week I've had 2 very recently qualified adult nurses talk about how l.d is all community and how we don't do anything clinical and how we can't do iv's and we can't take blood and we can't do x, y and z.
It shows that even the most recently trained of nurses can still be ignorant. I have been told communicating isn't hard and how l.d is not a hard subject.
It does take a lot for me to not bite people's heads off at such things! In the years I've worked with people with l.d and the hcp's that liaise with them I've seen appalling communication! Talking to me and not the individual, pretending to understand then looking to me for clarification, just simply nodding and agreeing, hoping that the individual may stop talking. Constantly asking other hcp's for help when the person may be showing a behaviour that may challenge.
The list can go on and on.
Yet it is the carers and the health care professionals that work with the individual on a frequent basis that will know most about that person. And there are many conditions that people with learning disabilities have that many people have not heard of. All of this needs to be publicised more and to give those with a learning disability a bigger voice. There is only so much the parents or carers can do. They need the likes of learning disability nurses to assist them, to enable them to look after the individual to their best ability. They want the public to know more, the doctors, the nurses, the psychologists, the speech and language team, everyone needs to be made more aware.
Learning disabilities are not going to go away. They won't diminish and they certainly will not stop happening.
If you're scared there's not going to be a job at the end of the degree, don't be.
People are living longer, they're living fuller and sometimes riskier lives. People are having children later on in life, people may experience medical trauma. All of the above and more can contribute as to why someone may have a learning disability. And these people need qualified knowledgeable professionals to help and assist in their care.
Learning disability nurses can deal with newborn babies, premature, and inutero.  They can deal with children and adults. Learning disabilities do not discriminate with age. They can affect anyone. So in being a learning disability nurse you are experiencing a wide age range. A variety of people. And that makes you just as qualified as any other branch.



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