Student nurses at De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) received the invaluable opportunity to meet and experience caring for people with learning disabilities during an emotional day at DMU.
MOVERS: The Leicester based learning disabled theatre company performed at DMU's Learning Disability Day
The chance to enhance their understanding of a key area of the Nursing curriculum came at Learning Disability Day (LDD), the second annual running of the event.
Due to a recent change in curriculum, student nurses are required to experience nursing individuals from each of the four fields of nursing - children, adults, mental health and learning disability patients – before encountering them in the workplace.
In order to meet this requirement, Jillian Pawlyn, senior lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at DMU, organised the one-day event to provide nursing students with the chance to interact with individuals with a learning disability to allow them to better understand how their care requirements may differ from others.
LDD was run to coincide with the National Learning Disability Week which learning disability charity Royal Society Mencap run to raise awareness, challenge prejudice and encourage a more accepting society for people with learning disabilities.
“It was about raising the profile of learning disabilities for student nurses,” Jillian said.
“They’re a big part of our community but they’re often hidden away so this provided a chance for students to meet real people with real experiences. It was an exciting and dynamic day.”
The LDD was run in three main stages, starting with dramatic performances to set the scene for the day ahead, presentations from guest speakers including keynote speaker Beverly Dawkins OBE, a special advisor to Royal Society Mencap with more than 30 years’ experience of treating people with learning disabilities, and finally the opportunity for DMU’s student nurses to network with the day’s guests and learn about their lives and how they live with learning with disabilities.
More than 300 students took part in LDD and their experiences should help them massively in the future given that they will gain a better understanding of caring for learning disability patients at this early stage of their careers.
Jillian added: “People with learning disabilities receive insufficient care and there are unnecessary deaths so it’s important that the students had the chance to meet people that they might not ordinarily have met until they come into contact with health services.
“The feedback has been really good; everyone enjoyed the opportunity to influence future practitioners.
“The students themselves were really moved, during some of the presentations several of them were literally moved to tears because the experiences shared were so powerful and gave the students an insight into life as a person with a learning disability and many of the students have not met people with learning disabilities before.”
Given the success of the two Learning Disability Days that have taken place at DMU, Royal Society Mencap have now given their support to Jillian to ensure that it remains an annual event that future cohorts of students can continue to benefit from in their journeys to becoming fully-qualified nurses.
Posted on Monday 20 July 2015