Anglo-Irish study of intellectual/learning disability nursing
An oral historical account concerning issues of sustainability of a healthcare workforce
The aim of this study is to collect and analyse data obtained by using the oral history approach to support and/or challenge current knowledge of the trajectory of intellectual disability nursing during the last thirty years.
It presents a unique opportunity to contribute to the historical knowledge of intellectual disability nursing both in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
About the project
The numbers of learning disability nurses are known to be dramatically reducing in the UK (Gates, 2010; Glover, 2012), making them a rarity, and potentially facing uncertainty in a future health workforce. Whereas in Ireland, the numbers of registered learning disability nurses have increased over the past 15 years by 50% - from 4, 061 in 2001 to 6, 085 in 2016 (NMBI, 2017).
This study seeks to try and understand the motivations of staff who have worked in learning disability services for at least 30 years as to why they chose to spend much of their working life working with people with learning disabilities, and learn lessons that might resonate with the current crises in nursing recruitment and retention, both in Ireland and the UK.
The study aims to:
- explore the lived experience of nurses and health care assistants in both the UK and Ireland of their working lives
- examine factors affecting the sustainability of the workforce and relate this to contemporary issues of recruitment and retention
- unearth lessons for contemporary providers of health and social care of services and make appropriate recommendations regarding workforce sustainability
- establish an archive of intellectual disability nurses’ and health care assistants’ oral histories.
Impact
It is anticipated that the study will identify factors affecting the sustainability of the learning disability nursing workforce and relate this to contemporary issues of recruitment and retention in pre-registration learning disability nursing.
The study is also expected to unearth lessons for contemporary learning disability commissioners and service providers of health and social care and make appropriate recommendations regarding workforce sustainability.
The research team
- Professor Kay Mafuba (UWL)
- Professor Bob Gates
- Dr Colin Griffiths, Paul Keenan, Sandra Fleming, Carmel Doyle, Michelle Cleary and Paul Horan (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland)
- Anne Norman, Royal College of Nursing.
Additional information
Please contact Dr Kay Mafuba with any enquiries.
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