Nurses invited to apply for £30k funded learning disability study
Posted 11 October 2023 - 09:00
RCN Foundation has announced a £30,000 fund to investigate the impact learning disability nurses have on patient outcomes and health inequalities
A charity has announced a £30,000 fund for a research study into the affect that learning disability nurses have on patient outcomes, premature deaths and health inequalities.
12-month study will investigate the impact of the learning disability specialism
The RCN Foundation is calling on individuals and organisations to apply to undertake the study in 2023-24 that will further explore how nurses improve the health and well-being of children, adults and older people with learning disabilities.
Successful candidates will work with trustees and staff at the RCN Foundation over a 12-month period.
RCN Foundation director Deepa Korea said: ‘Recognising the importance of learning disability nursing and its contributions to healthcare in the UK is crucial, even more so when so little is known and when attrition rates from this field of nursing are at an all-time high.
‘Funding research that explores the impact of learning disability nursing, I hope, will ultimately reduce health inequality and enhance health-related quality of life outcomes for those with lived experience of a learning disability.’
In 2019, the RCN Foundation funded a scoping review by the University of West London into understanding the impact that learning disability nurses can have on health inequalities and outcomes. It is hoped the new study will build on that work.
The lived experience of people with a learning disability will be central to the research
The funding announcement comes as the government announced a pledge to increase the number of learning disability training places by 46% by 2028-29 to 1,000 university places per year.
The charity say that the results of the research will be used to raise awareness of the importance of the role of nurses and to provide guidance to the workforce on how to explain the impact they have on this aspect of care.
It added that the lived experience of individuals with a learning disability should be ‘central to the research’ and applications from all four countries of the UK will be considered.
Applications are now open and close on Monday 13 November 2023 at 5pm.
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