·         Act professionally at all times working within your own competency level.

·         Shadow your practice supervisor or practice assessor. Practice supervisors and assessors are named below.

-          Emma Protheroe

-          Keith Perkins

-          Sophie Besant

-          Jacqui Howell

-          Aimee Young

·         Shadow other professionals within the team:

-          Kerry Johnson (Occupational Therapist)

-          Kerry Davies (OT Technician)

-          Dr Ceri Richings (Psychiatry)

-          Dr Abbie Stark (Psychologist)

-          Josh Reynolds (SALT)

·         Read patient files on your practice supervisor / assessor case load and begin to understand their needs.

·         Attend meetings, such as, assessment clinic, MDTs, reviews and keep minutes for these.

·         Shadow visits in the community.

·         Research to understand pathways and policies within the team / ABUHB. Think about how policies influence how you practice.

·         Become familiar with paperwork and assessments used within community team.

·         Dementia Questionnaire for people with learning disabilities (DLD).

·         Complex Needs Nursing Assessment.

·         WARRN Risk Assessments.

·         Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) plans.

·         Decision Support Tool.

·         Behavioural Assessment Tool (BBAT).

·         Disability Distress Tool (DISDAT).

·         Begin to liaise with families / support workers and carers and ring or visit for well-being checks. This can be an update about the service user’s health, social, emotional needs etc and feedback to the nurse you are working with.

·         Undertake certain assessments at your competency level and agreed with your practice supervisor / assessor.

·         Work more autonomously and begin to plan meetings and assessments with support from your practice supervisor / assessor.

·         Feedback to MDT which is held each week.

·         Begin to “think outside the box” and provide suggestions that you feel may be beneficial to your patient / service user and liaise with your practice supervisor / assessor. You can use your knowledge from past experiences and previous practice placements to influence patient decisions and their care plans.

·         Gain further knowledge around safeguarding, understanding of The Equality Act and implementing this knowledge into practice.

·         Attend Clinics run by the Torfaen CLDT.

You are never alone; everyone is here to help you! 😊

·         Begin to take the lead in assessments and meetings and arranging these with other professionals and services.

·         Your practice supervisor / assessor will give you a small caseload where you will be expected to liaise with providers, families, services and other professionals to meet your patients needs. This including:

-          Arranging meeting via teams / home visits.

-          Lead assessments.

-          You may receive new cases daily to carry out assessments.

-          Attending assessment clinic. 

-          Delegate referrals.

-          Feedback to MDT.

·         Feedback to professionals independently in meetings.

·         Partake in various training opportunities and take lead as and when appropriate.

·         If you wish to extend your knowledge, ask for additional courses or spoke days with other services. This will help you achieve your practice learning outcomes.

·         Involve yourself in DSTs and additional meetings that may be of interest to you.

·         Always ask to join meetings or go out on visits, this will help develop your knowledge and confidence in partaking in assessment when you begin in year 3!

·         At times where we may have not felt confident in feeding back worries or concerns in a meeting, we spoke to the nurses and our opinions were always valued. Our advice is never to be afraid to speak up and talk. It is better to talk with the team than keep and discuss ideas / concerns.

·         Being student nurses, it is clear that our opinions mattered within the Torfaen CLDT and we always felt like a valued team member. 

·         You are in good hands with the Torfaen CLDT, you will learn so much from the amazing Nurses here and develop your skills to become the registrant individuals with learning disabilities deserve.

Reflect on these with your supervisor throughout the placement.

We are looking forward to meeting you and helping you along your journey to becoming a Registered Learning Disability Nurse.

Thank you for reading from all at the Torfaen Community Learning Disability team.

Padlet created by Emma Protheroe RNLD and manager of Torfaen Community Learning Disability team.

Canolfan Fusnes Torfaen/ Torfaen Business Centre

Ffordd Panteg/ Panteg Road

New Inn,

NP4 0LS.

Ebost/ Email: emma.protheroe@wales.nhs.uk

Ffôn/ Phone: (01633) 624101