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Learning Disability Nursing Blog

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Original post by PaediatricStN
Great stuff! Love blogging and have two of my own! Well done :smile:

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Thanks!
I never thought I'd enjoy it as much as I am!
But I've discovered social media is amazing for nurses. I've met some lovely people through it and I'm glad I'm opening people's eyes to how fantastic learning disability nursing is. Can't imagine doing anything different! :smile:
Can't imagine doing 2 though...uni is enough haha.

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Social Media is very helpful. I use Twitter for professional purposes :smile:

Well the second I worked on over Easter and is now more of a website - very low maintenance. The first is a general children's nursing blog but the beauty of it, is that I am my own boss so write as frequently or infrequently as I like! :P

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http://ldstudentnurse.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/dementia-friends.html?m=1

Another post up today about Dementia Friends and how we can all help those with dementia.
Together we are better!
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Hi all, I have an interview for LD nursing in a couple of weeks and as part of my research I came across this article on Mencap's website.

https://www.mencap.org.uk/blog/daily-struggles-learning-disability-nurse

I was quite shocked if I'm quite honest about the lack of access to LD nurses this person had during their training. I was wondering if anyone had had similar experiences?


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Original post by CosmicJay
Hi all, I have an interview for LD nursing in a couple of weeks and as part of my research I came across this article on Mencap's website.

https://www.mencap.org.uk/blog/daily-struggles-learning-disability-nurse

I was quite shocked if I'm quite honest about the lack of access to LD nurses this person had during their training. I was wondering if anyone had had similar experiences?


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I actually covered a post on this in my blog.
I don't know where this person is doing their degree etc.
But throughout my first year I have met LD nurses. I have plenty of information from them and those who aren't LD trained are usually happy to listen to what information we have to share.
Please don't let this post scare you or worry you as this is rare from what I have heard from other student learning disability nurses.

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Original post by deviant182
I actually covered a post on this in my blog.
I don't know where this person is doing their degree etc.
But throughout my first year I have met LD nurses. I have plenty of information from them and those who aren't LD trained are usually happy to listen to what information we have to share.
Please don't let this post scare you or worry you as this is rare from what I have heard from other student learning disability nurses.

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Yeah I must admit I was quite surprised by this post, surely a university would be very unhappy about placing LD students with non-LD nurses as they won't receive the same kind of placement experience. I must admit the article did scare me somewhere! Coming from a mental health background I'm used to being surround by many mental health nurse and the prospect of being placed on an adult nurse lead ward is quite worrying - after all it's the LD branch I want to do!

I know you've done a few blog posts that focus on things like placements, but can you just remind me, where were your placements in first year?


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Original post by CosmicJay
Yeah I must admit I was quite surprised by this post, surely a university would be very unhappy about placing LD students with non-LD nurses as they won't receive the same kind of placement experience. I must admit the article did scare me somewhere! Coming from a mental health background I'm used to being surround by many mental health nurse and the prospect of being placed on an adult nurse lead ward is quite worrying - after all it's the LD branch I want to do!

I know you've done a few blog posts that focus on things like placements, but can you just remind me, where were your placements in first year?


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I am currently writing up my post for this week as i started my last placement of first year this week! I have been in a learning disability hospital, then i had my out of field placement which was childrens and now i am in a learning disability day center.
I really dislike that post as i find it scary and somewhat misleading. While that may have been the case for that person, it is not like that for the majority of others.
If you are doing learning disability, you will work alongside a plethora of professionals. Speech and language therapists, ld nurses, other trained nurses, care workers, physios, psychologists, the list goes on.
After all, people with learning disabilities often have complex health needs so you may have a placement where they may not be a lot of ld nurses but they will work with them to ensure the pwld has the greatest quality of health and maximum level of health for them.
Please dont worry about learning disability placements. You will always hear scare stories etc as in my opinion l.d is the least understood branch. So many people are not aware of the work we do and all the syndromes we need to know, such as fragile x, divry von bogart, scwachman-diamond syndrome....it goes on. It can be hard, but the way ive always looked at it is, if that person doesnt understand the branch, help them to. If they dont respect it, then they probably dont respect pwld. Amd it is up to us to advocate for pwld and educate those that dont know.
Original post by deviant182
I am currently writing up my post for this week as i started my last placement of first year this week! I have been in a learning disability hospital, then i had my out of field placement which was childrens and now i am in a learning disability day center.
I really dislike that post as i find it scary and somewhat misleading. While that may have been the case for that person, it is not like that for the majority of others.
If you are doing learning disability, you will work alongside a plethora of professionals. Speech and language therapists, ld nurses, other trained nurses, care workers, physios, psychologists, the list goes on.
After all, people with learning disabilities often have complex health needs so you may have a placement where they may not be a lot of ld nurses but they will work with them to ensure the pwld has the greatest quality of health and maximum level of health for them.
Please dont worry about learning disability placements. You will always hear scare stories etc as in my opinion l.d is the least understood branch. So many people are not aware of the work we do and all the syndromes we need to know, such as fragile x, divry von bogart, scwachman-diamond syndrome....it goes on. It can be hard, but the way ive always looked at it is, if that person doesnt understand the branch, help them to. If they dont respect it, then they probably dont respect pwld. Amd it is up to us to advocate for pwld and educate those that dont know.


Hey, thanks very much for your reply! It sounds like you had a great set of first year placements. Was the hospital placement a traditional Assessment & Treatment ward? Were both the hospital placement and the day centre placement in environments that were lead by LD nurses?

I think deep down what I worry about is that LD nurses end up becoming quite isolated from each other in practice. I know this can be the same for other branches - for example nurses on a Forensic CMHT may be few and far between given the size and multidisciplinary nature of the team.


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Original post by CosmicJay
Hey, thanks very much for your reply! It sounds like you had a great set of first year placements. Was the hospital placement a traditional Assessment & Treatment ward? Were both the hospital placement and the day centre placement in environments that were lead by LD nurses?

I think deep down what I worry about is that LD nurses end up becoming quite isolated from each other in practice. I know this can be the same for other branches - for example nurses on a Forensic CMHT may be few and far between given the size and multidisciplinary nature of the team.


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The hospital had many ld nurses, the day centre does not as it is not a clinical setting. The hospital was great, I wouldn't say it was a a&t unit as many were detained and then others were transitioning back into the community.
And I think any branch you can become isolated. It will just depend on your role that you take once qualified. But i have found due to social media I have gained many friends who are ld nurses and students and that through that we can all help one another.
There are so many job opportunities for ld nurses and it is an amazing branch. There are so many roles where you can work as part of a team or on your own ie in the community where you manage your own work load.

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Original post by deviant182
The hospital had many ld nurses, the day centre does not as it is not a clinical setting. The hospital was great, I wouldn't say it was a a&t unit as many were detained and then others were transitioning back into the community.
And I think any branch you can become isolated. It will just depend on your role that you take once qualified. But i have found due to social media I have gained many friends who are ld nurses and students and that through that we can all help one another.
There are so many job opportunities for ld nurses and it is an amazing branch. There are so many roles where you can work as part of a team or on your own ie in the community where you manage your own work load.

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Yeah you do make a very good point, Just to pick your brains, do you see LD nursing as more similar to adult nursing or mental health nursing? The reason I ask this is because I know there are a lot of jobs out there where applicants are asked to have either RMN or RNLD registration.
Original post by CosmicJay
Yeah you do make a very good point, Just to pick your brains, do you see LD nursing as more similar to adult nursing or mental health nursing? The reason I ask this is because I know there are a lot of jobs out there where applicants are asked to have either RMN or RNLD registration.


I see ld as an amalgamation of all branches. We don't focus on the person's health as such but on the person holistically. Where they do have ill health; we can assist in diagnosing and working out where the pain is etc then assist in working with other health care professionals to help get them to their level of optimum health. Then we focus on mental health as many pwld will also have mental health issues that need addressing and focusing on to help them. Then as we can work with both adults and children we are qualified in that area too as learning disabilities do not discriminate with age .
Hence why I love my branch. It's so versatile and open to possibilities that I can't imagine doing anything else!
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Hi all!
I've recently completed a post covering Learning Disability Week.
I have also wrote a guest blog post for the BMJ covering the same.

It's amazing in a year how far I've come!
Love my course

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Hope everyone's summer is going well :smile:
I've just published a new post on What do
Learning Disability nurses do?
Hoping to help and clarify a little on that and provide some insight into the multitude of areas we can go work in.
Best of luck those awaiting to hear from uni :smile:

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Updated my blog today!
Phase 4 had mainly been theoretical stuff so haven't really found much to write about!
Loads more now I'm on placement though


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