Nursing/Registered Nurse: Learning Disabilities Nursing

Would you like to empower children, young people and adults to gain their best quality of life? On this degree, you will play an important role in delivering specialised and inclusive support, improving healthcare, social inclusion, and quality of life for people with learning disabilities.

There is a strong emphasis on collaborative teaching from all fields of nursing, which is informed by clients’ experiences of learning disability healthcare. Throughout your degree, our expert academic team will support you to ensure your experience is fulfilling and enjoyable.

On campus, you will immerse yourself in learning disability nursing by taking full advantage of our clinical skills and simulation facilities, which provide the opportunity to develop your skills and confidence in safe and supportive environments. This includes using digital simulation as well as our simulated ward areas, high-dependency care areas, home spaces, and cutting-edge immersive simulation room.

You will also spend half of your degree on clinical placements, providing nursing care to individuals and families in a variety of settings. You will have many opportunities to network with local services, and you will become an advocate for people with learning disabilities. Our unique campus locations mean you will gain wide-ranging experience in both rural and city areas.

Course Overview

Taught at our Carlisle Fusehill Street and Lancaster campuses, our learning disabilities nursing course prepares you to work within the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s professional framework, developing the skills and values essential to prioritising people, practising effectively, and promoting professionalism in care.

Throughout the programme, you’ll gain the knowledge and confidence to support individuals with a learning disability in a compassionate, person-centred way. You'll explore complex healthcare needs, health promotion, and health facilitation across the lifespan, while developing critical thinking and evidence-based practice that can make a real difference to people's lives.

Learning is split 50/50 between theory and hands-on experience. You'll undertake six placements alongside qualified learning disability nurses in a range of settings, helping you to grow as a creative, collaborative, and confident practitioner.

On this course you will...

• Prepare you to work with people across the lifespan from new families, children and young people, to older adults who require support at various times throughout their lives.

• Provide nursing care and support to an individual and families and have a profound impact on their lives.

• Experience something new every day, and have the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others.

• Work in a wide variety of settings. The opportunities are endless, allowing you to have a career where you are always motivated and inspired to go to work for another exciting and rewarding day.

• Learn to become an advocate for people with learning disabilities, you can make sure that a person's voice is heard, their human rights protected and that discrimination does not occur.

Year one
You'll get an introduction into the nursing profession, focusing on the skills you'll need as a learning disability nurse - such as, health and behaviours and developing therapeutic approaches.

• Applied Biological Sciences for Health
  Anatomy and physiology relating to key systems including Principles of Homeostasis, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, and Gastrointestinal.
• Professional Practice and Accountability
  Spheres of professional accountability & responsibility, including health & social care legislation, legal & professional duty of care and negligence.
• Developing Evidence-Based Practice
  Exploring knowledge acquisition, academic skills, information and digital literacy and fluency, academic integrity, and reflective practice.
• Introduction to Communication and Interpersonal Skills
  Equipping students with a variety of communication, interpersonal and self-awareness skills required to provide culturally appropriate and compassionate nursing care.
• Concepts of Health and Social Policy
  Explore perspectives of biological, psychological, social, cultural, spiritual and behavioural determinants of health and promote person centred wellbeing across the lifespan.
• Introduction to Learning Disabilities Nursing
  Explore key concepts in Learning Disability Nursing and develop a foundation of knowledge and skills.

Year two
You'll build on the skills learned in your first year and put theory into practice with practical placements to ensure you get the very best, first-hand experience of working within a clinical setting - abroad should you choose it.

• Pharmacology and Medicine Therapeutics
  Focus on understanding and applying the principles of pharmacology and medicine therapeutics in the management of care.
• Living with Long Term Conditions Across the Lifespan
  Develop underpinning knowledge relating to the causes, presentation and management of long term conditions across the lifespan.
• Learning from the Lived Experience
  Analyse contextual knowledge through problem based learning and reflection using narratives of individuals accessing health and social care.
• Communication and Relationship Management in a Therapeutic Context
  Learn to recognise, select and utilise appropriate communication strategies and therapeutic skills.
• Recognition and Assessment of Physical & Mental Health of Clients with Learning Disabilities
  Learn to acknowledge the prevalence of health issues and inequalities that individuals with a learning disability experience. Develop assessment skills to enable clinical care planning.
• Values-Based Contemporary Learning Disability Nursing
  Explore a bio-psycho-social approach to overcoming barriers, and discrimination to promote independence enable people with a learning disability to lead desired lives.

Year three

• Clinical Decision Making and Complex Care
  Consolidate professional competence in clinical decision-making related to the management of complex care.
• Contemporary Issues and Change Management in Professional Practice
  Learn to consolidate evidence in order to improve service quality within professional practice.
• Public Health
  Focus on public health and social care agendas and their impact on individuals, groups and communities.
• Leading and Managing Health and Social Care
  Prepare for working as a professional within an organisation, leading and managing care within a changing environment.
• Consolidating Awareness of Learning Disability Nursing
  Prepare for registration as a learning disability nurse with the ability to make analytical and objective assessments and judgement based on evidence related to your area of practice.

Modules use formative and summative assessment so that students progress through a module and build knowledge for practice coherently and logically. Formative assessments are designed so that feedback on the individual student’s performance is provided prior to the submission of the final, summative assessment – though this does not contribute to the final module mark or the credit awarded.

The wordage – or equivalent – for both formative and summative assessments is counted towards the whole module assessment wordage.

Types and methods of assessment will include:

• Group seminars and presentations
• Essays
• Interpersonal skills analysis
• Portfolio of evidence (achievement of clinical competencies and written evidence)
• Examination (context-based scenarios)
• Map of patient/client experience
• Reflective essays
• Community health profile, learning statement and reflective incident recording
• Resource package
• Poster presentation
• Dissertation