Learning Disability Nurses provide specialist healthcare and support to young people with a learning disability to help them live a fulfilling life.
Learning Disability Nurses provide specialist healthcare and support to young people with a learning disability to help them live a fulfilling life.
You should be a qualified Learning Disability Nurse, registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), with extensive experience of working with people with a learning disability and autism.
You will have experience of completing assessments and developing interventions based on this. You should be able to manage risk using a good understanding of safeguarding.
You will have experience of working in a wider multi-disciplinary team and being able to work collaboratively with other agencies and professionals.
- Provide support to children, young people and their families who have a diagnosis of complex autism and/or learning disabilities who are experiencing difficulties with behaviours of distress and/or mental health difficulties
- Identify and assess the behavioural and emotional needs of children and young people with severe learning disabilities and/or Autism and their families
- Provide and develop skilled behavioural interventions for children and young people with severe learning disabilities and/or complex needs, within own caseload, under the supervision of a senior nurse or psychologist
- Work within a multi-agency team in the delivery of holistic approach which meets the needs of children and young people with severe learning disabilities
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My current role works with children and young people that have a significant learning disability and or autism who present with behaviours of distress and / or mental health difficulties, anxiety etc.
I have been working in the field of learning disabilities for approx. 15 years in various roles and with different age groups. I was drawn to this role as I was keen to work with young people and their families in an intervention focused way. I also have a specific interest in mental health and was keen to work in a field that brought both of these areas together and where I could work to support young people in these areas. I have a passion for working with people with a learning disabilities and supporting and advocating for them in order to improve their quality of life.
No day is the same or predictable! But that is part of the reason that I like the job.
However typically I will have clinic appointments with parents and young people, I will complete home visits, and I will go into schools and meet with the staff and young people there too. I regularly attend meetings with other professionals and families and attend Child In Need meetings and Core Group meetings and Case Conferences for those children where there are safeguarding concerns. I have times where I just meet with parents to discuss concerns and help to develop strategies and interventions that could help the child at home.
Typically, I spend some of my day in the office in order to complete admin tasks, time in meetings with other professionals, clinic appointments, home visits and going into schools. I also lead groups for parents.
As a team we are good at sharing a lot of developments and research in our fields and I benefit from this being not only for nursing but also psychology as well as wider in the area of disability. I am signed up to several organisations that send email updates to me of changes and developments and I also attend a monthly LD nurses meeting.
I love working with the children and families and being able to move things forward and make their lives a little bit better. To me the best bit is being able to spend time with them and develop a strong and positive and trusting working relationship.
Being able to adapt my communication and to listen and hear what is being told to me. To sometime have to read between the lines. To have a real care and a desire to improve people’s lives.
If you have the desire and passion to work with this amazing group of young people, they will get you through the difficult days when you have too much to do and not enough time to do it in. Having experience of spending time with young people that communicate differently.
I am also social work trained and this has helped me significantly in being able to support families in getting the right help for them and also to understand the processes of Child In Need and Child Protection and my roles and responsibilities in regard to this.
Some form of communication training, basic sign or talking mats or social stories training
Positive Behavioural Support training.
EPR has meant that it is easier for me to work remotely, however this has also made it more challenging in many ways as I have to now find time to write case notes whereas before I could do it via hand and put this straight into a young person’s file.
I genuinely love my job. I get to work with some lovely young people and having the privilege of working with them helps me through the harder times. The relationships that I am able to develop with some of the young people makes everything worthwhile.
