NUR6035 - Managing complex care needs in learning disabilities nursing

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

1 Critically analyse the role of the learning disabilities nurse, other professionals, and agencies in coordinating and managing complex care needs of people across the life span and in supporting their carers and families.

2 Appraise contemporary legislation, models, and approaches to service delivery for people with complex care needs in promoting positive risk management, shared decision making and supported self-care strategies.

3 Make sound recommendations for service development and improvement to enhance care for people who have learning disabilities and complex care needs that requires partnership and interagency working.

4 Critically examine and evaluate evidence based therapeutic interventions used to enhance the health and wellbeing of people who have learning disabilities and complex care needs.

5 Justify the use of a specific evidence based therapeutic intervention to support individuals, carers and families experiencing complex mental, physical, cognitive, emotional, or behavioural care needs.

Content:

This module will enable you to develop the knowledge and skills required to deliver and manage safe, effective, holistic person-centred care for individuals of all ages who have learning disabilities and complex care needs including co-morbidities relating to physical or mental health and the support of their carers and families. You will also recognise the impact of wider social determinates and health inequalities and use all appropriate opportunities to promote health and prevent ill health including NHS Health Checks for people with learning disabilities, Education Health Care Plans (EHCP’s) and Annual health checks for people with a learning disability over the age of 14 years old. You will critically reflect on the complexities of managing the provision of care needs across a wide range of specialist services for people with learning disabilities and autism including special schools, children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND), statutory hospital and social care community provision, private, independent, and voluntary organisations and those that are at risk of encountering criminal justice agencies or are in criminal justice settings. You will consider the complex care needs of people with profound and multiple learning disabilities who may also have physical disabilities, epilepsy, sensory impairments, sensory processing difficulties, mental health needs and complex health needs. You will explore the role of the learning disabilities nurse in supporting the safe transition of care and understand the processes involved to plan and ensure safe discharge of people across services, caseloads and setting, acting as a member of an interdisciplinary team, using clinical reasoning and diagnostic thinking in complex situations. You will discuss strategies to monitor and evaluate the quality of people’s experiences of complex care and develop the ability to take proactive measures to improve the quality of care and services reviewing contemporary healthcare policy and models of service delivery in relation to the Transforming Care Agenda i.e., Green Light Working auditing and improving mental health services to meet the needs of people with learning disability and/or autism, LeDeR service improvement programme to learn from reviews of deaths of people with learning disabilities, Dynamic Support Registers to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions for learning disability and autistic people and Care, Education and Treatment Reviews (CETR’s) to ensure people receive the right support and understanding the needs of people with learning disabilities and autism. You will be able to advocate and safeguard people’s rights in relation to relevant legislation i.e., Mental Health Act (2007), Mental Capacity Act (2005) and Liberty Protection Safeguards (2022) and promote equal access to care and support making reasonable adjustments so they can maintain their independence and avoid unnecessary disruptions to their lives, managing risks through shared decision making. You will be able to articulate and justify a range of evidence based therapeutic interventions for individual and groups with complex needs including CBT, solution focused therapies, strengths-based recovery approaches, trauma informed care and distraction, diversion, and de-escalation techniques when communicating with carers and families under stress. You will develop knowledge of theories, models and concepts of behavioural issues in learning disabilities practice and skills to deliver person-centred Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) to people with a learning disability, and/or autism, including those with mental health conditions, who have, or may be at risk of developing, behaviours that challenge, to improve the quality of the person’s life, promote inclusion, choice, participation, and equality of opportunity. Finally, you will reflect on the nature of collaborative therapeutic relationships including pre-engagement, engagement, therapeutic alliance, transition, and endings, evaluating enablers and disablers to therapeutic engagement.

Learning and Teaching Information:

You will be taught in field specific groups allowing you to develop a specialised focus for your field of nursing expertise Research informed key lectures will introduce the weekly content of the module identifying theories/principles/concepts enabling you to develop your knowledge and skills. This will be supported by blended learning pre and post session activities on Moodle and you will be expected to engage with a range of activities including pre-reading to prepare you for lectures and follow-on activities to enable ongoing self and tutor assessment of your progress and application of knowledge and skills. The lecture content will be supported by seminars enabling smaller group discussion where you will consolidate your knowledge and critically engage with best evidence to support your professional development and to apply your learning to clinical practice, activities will include role play, problem-based learning, and practice-based scenario exploration. Where appropriate specialist practitioners and service users and carers will be invited to contribute to sessions to increase the authenticity of lived experience of the module content and highlight employability links. Learning styles will be supported by a variety of resources including videos, reading material, discussion and debate, e-learning modules, problem solving and practical tasks. You will be expected to utilise appropriate digital technologies and study skills to engage with additional resources and in independently directing your own learning.

Lectures
Hours: 42
Intended group size: 100

Seminars
Hours: 28
Intended groups size: 25

Guided independent study
Hours: 130

Further details relating to assessment
Post session activities submitted through Moodle will facilitate ongoing formative assessment opportunities via lecturer or peer feedback, these may include responses to case studies, quizzes, forum posts or blogs and self-assessment. One draft opportunity will be provided for each assessment task with feedback provided at least one week prior to summative submission.

(1). You will select a relevant healthcare setting and an evidenced based therapeutic intervention. You will write a 3000 words service development and improvement plan which critically evaluates strategies to enhance the quality of integrated person centred-care provision for people with learning disabilities who have complex care needs including the provision of a specific therapeutic approach, the involvement of individuals, carers, and families as equal partners in the process of collaborative care planning and in evaluating the quality-of-care provided via service audit findings.

The assessments will allow you to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the provision and quality improvement of services for people, carers and families experiencing complex mental health care needs.

Note that compensation is not permitted. Each assessment component must be passed at a minimum of 40% (NMC regulations), unless otherwise stipulated.

Assessment:

Fact File

Module Coordinator - PRS_CODE=
Level - 6
Credit Value - 15
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered -

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