SLDNN16 was yet again another great display of Learning
Disability Nursing across Scotland and also focused on the great work being
carried out in both pre and post registration nursing. The theme of “Lifelong Learning”
was informative and thought provoking. This blog post will contain a brief
summary of the day and some highlights of what each speaker discussed.
The Scottish Learning Disability Nursing Network 2016
Conference began with Steve Wright welcoming those in attendance and going over
housekeeping. Steve thanked the conference planning group for working together
to put together the conference and thanks went to the SLDNN Steering group for
their continued work within the SLDNN. Steve left going over the social media
information to the students who were presenting on this. Steve introduced the
chairs for the morning of the conference Corrinne Taylor 3rd Year,
GCU Co-chair of the SLDNN Student Sub-group and Julie Irvine 1st
Year, ENU Co-chair of the SLDNN Student Subgroup. Steve encouraged everyone
to be active on social media and enjoy the day.
Morning remarks came from Corrinne and Julie who welcomed
all in attendance and introduced the days Twitter hashtag #SLDNN16. They
encouraged tweeting throughout the day and that we would feedback how many people
we could have potentially reached with the good practice going on across
Scotland at the moment.
The first presentation which was on “Social Media in pre and
post registration LD Nursing” came from the SLDNN Student subgroup members,
Jack, 1st year ENU and Audrey, 2nd Year GCU. Jack and
Audrey discussed the two biggest forms of social media Facebook and Twitter and
briefly touched on how they work and the differences between them. They
discussed fears surrounding social media and provided the attendees with
solutions to alleviate those fears. Jack and Audrey highlighted the benefits
and the challenges and that it is vital we “think before we post”. The
presentation was engaging and very well presented. Jack and Audrey encouraged
the room to get involved on Twitter and use the hashtag #SLDNN16 throughout the day.
Jamie McDermott, GCU presented to conference on “Interprofessional
Education (IPE) at Glasgow Caledonian University: Learning with, from and about
each other”. Jamie discussed the ongoing commitment to Interprofessional
education from GCU and that it was established in the curriculum from the early
2000s. Jamie talked about his background in Occupational Therapy and his own
experiences of interprofessional learning. Jamie discussed the ever changing
landscape of IPE and the vast amount of disciplines and cross university working
that makes this module possible. The majority of the feedback the students have
given of the current IPE modules in the new programmes in GCU have been
received positively and viewed as beneficial in developing transferable skills.
Zoe Lightbody, Corrinne Taylor and Sian Pearson all 3rd
year from GCU presented “3 Years on: A student’s perspective”. Zoe introduced the
presentation and explained their involvement since 1st year and what
the SLDNN Student Subgroup has managed to achieve in that short time. She highlighted
the challenges in communication between the universities at times and the
highlights of getting to work collaboratively with the only two universities in
Scotland that deliver LD Nursing. Corrinne discussed the benefits of placements
in a variety of health boards and also international placements. As students
have had the opportunity to study in Malawi, Lourdes and Norway, it developed
their skills as practitioners. Sian encouraged the room to remember the reason
that they started the course and remember their inspiration. She highlighted
the excitement felt by all to qualify and start their new journey. The Student
sub-group was wished well in their future and that the students who will take
it forward are extremely passionate and motivated individuals.
Dr Jacqueline McCallum from GCU presented to conference on
the Scottish National Approach to Practice Assessment (SNAPA). Jacqueline was
part of the development of the Scottish Ongoing Achievement Record (OAR) placement documents and there was a lot of interest from attendees to learn
more about the Scottish OAR. 11 universities across Scotland formed a unique
partnership to collaborate on the Scottish OAR with the objective of having one
approach across Scotland. The Scottish OAR contains the same information from
NMC and is reviewed annually by the working group. It can be changed for field
specific objectives/each university placement flow. There was challenges in
development but each university were committed to providing a succinct approach
of placement documents. LD Student nurses from GCU and ENU piloted the Scottish
OAR and it was positively evaluated. There is work being completed in Robert
Gordon University to identify if there is a way of making the Scottish OAR
electronic which will make it more accessible for students and mentors alike.
The afternoon was chaired by Susanne Forrest, Programme
Director for Nursing NHS Education for Scotland. In Susanne’s post she leads in
a number of areas including mental health, learning disabilities and dementia
and also a wider portfolio. Susanne expressed her interest in hearing from the rest
of the day’s speakers.
June Brown, the Associate Nurse Director from NHS Grampian
and presented to conference “How anyone, anywhere can make a positive
difference”. June discussed that she was asked to discuss how a learning
disability nurse could become an associate nurse director. June asked the simple
question of, “why not?”. June discussed her passion for the learning disability
nurse role and that she was proud to have a background in LD Nursing. June
discussed her background in Learning disability, from working in Birkwood,
South Lanrkshire to Wellwood in Aberdeen. June spoke about seeing an
opportunity and rather than focusing on what she couldn’t do she focused on her
strengths and identified learning that would improve her knowledge base. June
discussed the importance of having someone to talk things over with who can
challenge your thought processes and push you to achieve your ambitions. June
was very encouraging and positive throughout her presentation and encouraged all those in attendance to continue learning.
Lyndsay Marshall, staff nurse from NHS Ayrshire and Arran
presented “A New Life/ Still Learning”. Lyndsay discussed the beginning of her
career as a newly qualified staff nurse and how she been able to apply her
interest into further professional development. Lyndsay participated in NES’
training which looked at positive behavioural support as a way of supporting
individuals with perceived challenging behaviours. Lyndsay was able to lead and
be the catalyst for change in the environment she works in which has improved
the client’s needs. It has also given staff a new focus and although they were
initially hesitant and weren’t “sure what changes if any” they would see. Staff have found it to be very useful, with some saying “the service has more
emphasis on giving people control over the things in their lives”. Lyndsay sees
her future in learning as much as she can from her environment and aims to achieve
a Band 6 role. She talked about her confidence growing across the years. Lyndsay
was passionate and inspiring and it was clear to all of conference that this is
just the start of a lengthy career for her in LD Nursing.
Chris Cunningham from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde
presented “The Developing Role of the Band 5 Community Learning Disability
Nurse (CLDN). Chris discussed his journey and that he started in the community
straight from university. Chris discussed the challenges facing the role as a
result of current changes within the health board however continues to seek to
gain professional development. Chris has an interest in autism and transitions
from children to adult services for people with learning disability and hopes
to develop these throughout his career. He encouraged the room to take
opportunities to learn from other health boards/countries.
Serena Allan from Royal Blind was the final presentation of
the day and she spoke on “Delivering Better Care”. Serena talked about the care
home she currently is charge nurse in supports elderly individuals with visual
impairments. She spoke of the changes that she has seen over the years and how
attitudes can impact on a day. She rightly said “you can’t have a good day with
a bad attitude and you can’t have a bad day with a good attitude”. Serena talks
about the benefits she has found from FISH! Philosophy that encourages you to
choose your attitude. Serena was open and honest when discussing her professional development, and encouraged conference to seek to find something that we can do to
improve ourselves, be that as leaders or as practitioners.
The day was rounded off by the SLDNN Unsung Hero Award. This year’s
recipient of the SLDNN Unsung Hero award was Sarah Shovlin from NHS Greater
Glasgow and Clyde. Sarah has championed the needs of people with learning
disabilities and has worked tirelessly over her career to promote the needs of
her clients. A massive well done to Sarah from all at SLDNN.
The day was as usual motivational and inspiring. We
understand how easy it is to get caught up in the daily demands of the job, but
conference was a great way to reset and refocus. For those who were not able to
attend, we hope this brief overview can provide a snapshot of the conference. We hope you were able to follow the day on Twitter. From assessing the statistics of our hashtag #SLDNN16, we were able to reach over approximately 40'000 people. This hopefully demonstrates how much of an impact social media can make. We were able to share the great work going on within learning disability nursing across Scotland across the world and hopefully going forward the amount of people we can reach will only grow.
On another note, I'd just like to take the time to say that it has been an absolute pleasure for Corrinne, Zoe and I to be
involved in the SLDNN Student Sub-group over the last 3 years, and we would
like to thank the Steering group for all their guidance and opportunities over
the years. The students who are in the subgroup are so enthusiastic and we have
no doubt they will go on to do great things. We wish them all the best going forward.
Sian
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