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Students need skills in talking to patients with learning disabilities By Alistair Kleebauer
@alistairbauer
All pre-registration nursing students should be taught how to communicate with patients who have learning disabilities to improve care, a report by the Council of Deans of Health has recommended. The report, co-authored by the UK Learning and Intellectual Disability Nursing Academic Network, recommends a competency framework to strengthen learning disability education. Communication with learning disabled people can be poor, says the report, and RCN professional lead for learning disabilities Ann Norman agrees: ‘Healthcare professionals can be nervous of saying the wrong thing to someone with a learning disability.’ Ms Norman welcomed another of the report’s recommendations, which is to involve people with learning disabilities in training. Some universities ask them to take part in role play training so nursing students can develop their communication skills. The Nursing and Midwifery Council requires learning disability care to be covered in all pre-registration training, but the Council of Deans of Health (CoDH) has found higher education institutions (HEIs) can place lower value on it compared with other fields of practice.
lecturer for learning disabilities, the report recommends. University of Huddersfield senior lecturer for learning disability nursing Stacey Atkinson, a former Nursing Standard nurse of the year, said: ‘The report is wonderful in terms of providing a framework that offers consistency. Universities strive to ensure people have some learning disability input in their training, but I question how consistent it is. ‘This should not stop at nursing – it should be extended to doctors and other healthcare professionals too.’ CoDH chair Dame Jessica Corner said it is an issue for all health and social care professionals, and hoped the report will be ‘a first step in a wider debate’. A survey of HEIs undertaken for the report highlighted barriers to covering learning disability issues on nursing degree courses. One
Competence
It recommends that nursing students should better understand the role of specialist learning disability nurses. It also recommends a specific learning disability competence is included in every student’s practice assessment and that HEIs consider a range of activities, including clinical simulation, to deliver learning disability education. Read the report at tinyurl.com/khb3838
Joy for Pauline as she is given Ebola all-clear
PA IMAGES
Family role
The proposed competency framework would cover areas such as capacity and consent, and the role of family and carers. People with learning disabilities and their carers should be involved in all aspects of curriculum design and delivery, and universities that provide nurse education should have a link
respondent said ‘the curriculum is overloaded so there is no space to do the subject justice’. The report points to inequalities in the health care provided to people with learning disabilities generally, including evidence that ‘untrained, inexperienced or discriminatory staff’ fail to make reasonable adjustments.
Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, pictured, has been discharged from the Royal Free Hospital in London after making a complete recovery from Ebola. She was diagnosed with the virus after caring for patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone and was admitted to hospital in December. Ms Cafferkey, a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre on the outskirts of Glasgow, praised staff at the Royal Free, where she was treated in a high-level isolation unit for more than three weeks. ‘I am happy to be alive,’ she said. Ms Cafferkey volunteered with Save the Children. The charity’s chief executive officer Justin Forsyth praised her as a ‘dedicated humanitarian’.
NURSING january 28other :: voluses 29without no 22 ::permission. 2015 7 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 23, 2015. For personal use only. No Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
Share your news with us – email [email protected], call +44 (0)20 8872 3144 or @NurseStandard
Students need skills in talking to patients with learning disabilities By Alistair Kleebauer
@alistairbauer
All pre-registration nursing students should be taught how to communicate with patients who have learning disabilities to improve care, a report by the Council of Deans of Health has recommended. The report, co-authored by the UK Learning and Intellectual Disability Nursing Academic Network, recommends a competency framework to strengthen learning disability education. Communication with learning disabled people can be poor, says the report, and RCN professional lead for learning disabilities Ann Norman agrees: ‘Healthcare professionals can be nervous of saying the wrong thing to someone with a learning disability.’ Ms Norman welcomed another of the report’s recommendations, which is to involve people with learning disabilities in training. Some universities ask them to take part in role play training so nursing students can develop their communication skills. The Nursing and Midwifery Council requires learning disability care to be covered in all pre-registration training, but the Council of Deans of Health (CoDH) has found higher education institutions (HEIs) can place lower value on it compared with other fields of practice.
lecturer for learning disabilities, the report recommends. University of Huddersfield senior lecturer for learning disability nursing Stacey Atkinson, a former Nursing Standard nurse of the year, said: ‘The report is wonderful in terms of providing a framework that offers consistency. Universities strive to ensure people have some learning disability input in their training, but I question how consistent it is. ‘This should not stop at nursing – it should be extended to doctors and other healthcare professionals too.’ CoDH chair Dame Jessica Corner said it is an issue for all health and social care professionals, and hoped the report will be ‘a first step in a wider debate’. A survey of HEIs undertaken for the report highlighted barriers to covering learning disability issues on nursing degree courses. One
Competence
It recommends that nursing students should better understand the role of specialist learning disability nurses. It also recommends a specific learning disability competence is included in every student’s practice assessment and that HEIs consider a range of activities, including clinical simulation, to deliver learning disability education. Read the report at tinyurl.com/khb3838
Joy for Pauline as she is given Ebola all-clear
PA IMAGES
Family role
The proposed competency framework would cover areas such as capacity and consent, and the role of family and carers. People with learning disabilities and their carers should be involved in all aspects of curriculum design and delivery, and universities that provide nurse education should have a link
respondent said ‘the curriculum is overloaded so there is no space to do the subject justice’. The report points to inequalities in the health care provided to people with learning disabilities generally, including evidence that ‘untrained, inexperienced or discriminatory staff’ fail to make reasonable adjustments.
Scottish nurse Pauline Cafferkey, pictured, has been discharged from the Royal Free Hospital in London after making a complete recovery from Ebola. She was diagnosed with the virus after caring for patients with Ebola in Sierra Leone and was admitted to hospital in December. Ms Cafferkey, a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre on the outskirts of Glasgow, praised staff at the Royal Free, where she was treated in a high-level isolation unit for more than three weeks. ‘I am happy to be alive,’ she said. Ms Cafferkey volunteered with Save the Children. The charity’s chief executive officer Justin Forsyth praised her as a ‘dedicated humanitarian’.
NURSING january 28other :: voluses 29without no 22 ::permission. 2015 7 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 23, 2015. For personal use only. No Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
