Learning Disability Nursing in the Community

Learning Disability Nurses carry out a range of vital work with patients in the community.

Learning Disability Nurses working in the community deliver care in people’s homes, communities, GP surgeries and clinics every day – and do vital outreach work with people who may not have a secure home.

Many people would be unable to live at home without the support that they get from learning disability community nurses and their teams.

If you are considering a career as a Learning Disability Nurse, visit the

England — Learning disability nurse | Health Careers

Scotland — Learning disability nurse | NHSScotland Careers

Wales — Learning disability nursing - HEIW

Northern Ireland — Learning Disability Nursing: Equity of Access and Outcome | NIPEC

RCN — Becoming a learning disability nurse | Learning Disability Nursing Forum | Royal College of Nursing

 
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Mel Axon, Team Manager and Clinical Lead for Learning Disability Nursing
Mel Axon, Team Manager and Clinical Lead for Learning Disability Nursing

“I love being a Community Nurse as every day is like a new day, you can never plan to have the day you thought you had planned. You get to work within a MDT with passionate people who want to improve and help people with their lives. You work alongside main stream services in improving processes and knowledge. A community Nurse has to have a good network of people that they know and I have to say I have always been the go to person in the team to know the right person to talk to across services.

“Annual health check support, end of life support, palliative care support, medication support, and the list goes on…

“You meet lovely people along with their fantastic families and carers.

A Community Nurse’s life in the learning Disability field is varied, full of surprises, rewarding, fun and full on. I wouldn’t want my day work changed, it is a real opportunity to change people’s lives.”

Michelle Morrin, Community Learning Disability Nurse
Michelle Morrin, Community Learning Disability Nurse

Tameside & Glossop, Greater Manchester.
Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust

I consider it to be a real honour to be a community Learning disability nurse. Since relocating from Ireland in 2012, I have worked in a variety of settings and community nursing is definitely my forte! I work within a dynamic multi-disciplinary team, helping to deliver a range of support and interventions, all delivered with the intention of enabling people to achieve optimum independence and to lead enriched, healthy lives.

One of my passions is being part of a drive to improve the involvement, care, and treatment for the people I support within generic services across Greater Manchester. I feel strongly about changing attitudes and behaviours, enabling colleagues from all disciplines to gain a more informed understanding of the needs of people with learning disabilities. By delivering training across different types of provider forums and networks it becomes possible to drive these improvements. In my role, I observe that there are significant opportunities to harness people’s experiences of local services in order to shape and inform national policy and strategy, and ultimately help enhance the care people receive. As a community nurse learning disability nurse meaningful engagement and co-production is at the heart of what we do.

A day in the life of a community learning disability nurse is almost impossible to describe. It can change by the hour! What I can say, is that we are a skilled collective who are able to think outside of the box in order to achieve effective health outcomes for the people and families we support. My advice to my younger self when starting out a learning disability nurse… Don’t ever be afraid to challenge!! I am proud of the work myself and the team I work in deliver, and it is a pleasure to be a part of the wider national network of passionate learning disability nurses!