Learning Disability Nursing PgDip / MSc

Overview

Learning disability nurses enable individuals to live their lives to their full potential within the social context they choose, through collaborative interventions across a variety of health and social care settings and by using specialist input, through person centred practice, underpinned by the concept of partnership working. This course teaches you to promote social inclusion, good mental and physical health and self-determination through developing your skills, knowledge and attributes. All learning is grounded in a strong evidence base of integrative health and social care modelling. Our placements are varied, offering you the chance to create a future career that will be rewarding both for your personal and professional advancement. Success on this course makes you eligible to register as a learning disabilities nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC).

Employability

The course will enable you to develop a wide range of employability skills through the emphasis on a vocational approach to teaching which leads to a professional qualification leading to registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). There is an increasing body of research that shows the need for learning disability nurses as a specialist resource to address health inequalities experienced by people with learning disabilities. The course will give you the specialist knowledge and skills to work in a wide range of services, and the confidence to work collaboratively with people with learning disabilities, their families and carers, and other professionals and agencies. Successful graduates of the PgDip can top-up to MSc in one year and will be qualified to study a range of further specialist postgraduate pathways. With additional experience, advanced practice is available at Masters level with the potential to progress to doctorate studies.

Professional links

The learning disability nursing programmes at LSBU have a long history of partnership working with agencies in the NHS and independent and voluntary sector. The Professional Lead for Mental Health and Learning Disabilities at the Department of Health England is a frequent guest speaker who inspires Learning Disability nurses to influence and innovate.