During our second week in Scotland, we visited a variety of site visits consisting of disability service offices at universities and a one-stop-shop Autism initiative in downtown Edinburgh. This was a nice way to process and experience what we had learned about Scotland at IASSIDD and compare it to other countries.

One of the site visits I enjoyed the most was the Napier University, where we learned about their nursing program. The program has tracks for adult nursing students, pediatric nurses, and learning disability nurses. Unfortunately, we don’t have learning disability nurses in the US or anything like it, so it was especially fascinating to us all to learn about.

The presentation was given by Sam, a lecturer at the University and who had been a Learning Disability Nurse himself while also working in a variety of other healthcare jobs. He was very well-spoken and gave a wonderful presentation explaining various roles and responsibilities, schooling, and employment settings that are available to Learning Disability Nurses. Unlike most other medical positions, LDNs are concerned with the social model of disability in addition to the physical well-being of the individual. This allows for a much healthier and higher quality outcome for the individual, as their support and treatment have been curtailed to their individual needs.

The fact that a) this job even EXISTS and b) that students have to go through extensive and specialized schooling to learn about properly supporting this population goes to show that, generally speaking, nurses and medical staff are highly unqualified to work with people with disabilities in the US — and they don’t HAVE to be. 

** side note: I thought the Acute Liaison Nurse was a really interesting and helpful role! Their responsibilities include meeting with an individual beforetheir scheduled appointment to learn about what kind of accommodations they’ll need. They then go back to meet with the team of people who will be working with the person and they work to make those accommodations possible.I think this service could do wonders for people in getting to their appointments, feeling comfortable in a daunting setting, and being active participants in maintaining their health and well-being. If this position was available in the US, I definitely could see myself pursuing something like it!