Learning Disability Week

It's Learning Disability Week! 

15th - 21st June 2015

What does a learning disability really mean?

So...

What does a learning disability nurse do?

Please see the above link for an interview with Helen Laverty, a Learning Disability Nurse and lead lecturer at the University of Nottingham. 

Learning Disability Week is all about raising awareness of Learning Disabilities.  Not just the term as such, but those individuals who have a learning disability.  The term Learning Disability is fairly recent.  In other parts of the world, you may hear the term intellectual disabilities.  Some years ago, you may have heard the term mental retardation, or retarded.  This is deeply offensive today, but back in the 1960's (yes only a short time ago) it was the norm.  Even mental retardation was considered  politically correct and replaced terms such as idiot, feeblemindedness and freak.

Learning Disability Nursing is about recognising that those individuals have just as much right as any other individual to having specialised nursing care.  As I may have mentioned previously, just as there are respiratory nurses, cardiac nurses, oncology nurses etc, then there should be learning disability nurses.  Each individual has the right to health care, and that care should be the best possible for them.  If there are nurses that are specialised in that field and that can ensure those people have access to that care so they are looked after then why not? 

It is important that you as a Learning Disability Nurse ensure that their care is the best that they can have and that those around them can help with delivering that care. 

For Learning Disability nursing, there are Twitter chats that take place on a regular basis. 

If you are not on Twitter, see the website here for a transcript of previous Twitter chats.

For a guest blog, please see this post on the Mencap page. If you think you may recognise her, it is because she has been on our television screens a lot recently! 

I have always loved my chosen field of work. Since I entered Learning Disability Nursing I have found not only has my passion increased for the branch of nursing that I am doing, but that I have learnt a lot in my first year of doing Learning Disability Nursing.  I am now one third of the way through to becoming a qualified nurse.  In this time, I have been able to get to know many health professionals involved within the field.  I may sound biased, but I do not know of any other field that is so prominent on social media and in helping one another!

I have found Learning Disability Nursing to be so enlightening for my own education and learning experience.  I have learnt a lot from those service users (or clients), I have been able to champion Learning Disability Nursing in many ways. I started this blog not for myself, but to raise awareness of what Learning Disability Nursing is.

With Learning Disability Week 2015, I hope that not only do we get out there what Learning Disability Nurses do, but that those with Learning Disabilities can still face discrimination and inequalities on a daily basis.  If you are reading this, then chances are you have seen this or know about this.  We can all advocate for those who cannot speak up for themselves.  By saying no to inequality, by saying you will listen, by telling others to be patient, by showing others by example, you are making a difference.  By educating others on what a learning disability is, you can help to end discrimination to those with a learning disability.

When I began writing this blog a year ago, I never envisioned I would know what I do today or I would be where I am today.  However, I am here. I couldn't be prouder of my patients / students / service users / clients / and what they have taught me. 

As I progress, both in my course and in my knowledge of learning disabilities, i find myself more and more aware of those out there who need our support and help as learning disability nurses.

 In relation to this, i have written a guest blog post on the BMJ for Learning Disability Week. 

You can find it here.

So what can you do for Learning Disability Week? 

Speak up! Shout it from the rooftops you are proud to know about Learning Disabilities and that you do what you can to help any individual wanting to know about learning disabilities and how to help those who may have a learning disability.  It is an amazing branch, it is life changing. It is full of surprises. Most of all, it is a branch I love and a branch of nursing that I feel so privileged to be studying.