Amanda Bray

I began my journey into learning disability nursing over 20 years ago, and it was by chance! I wasn’t sure where I wanted to be and I had worked in a variety of areas including pharmacies, opticians and general retail environments. I decided out of all my experiences I really liked people and the idea of something in health so after a quick look around I enrolled on an access course at my local college and I loved it. I went along to my local job centre and there was an open day for a local care agency, I had an interview there and then. The care agency supported people with learning disabilities, I had never thought about this avenue but it felt like this was finally where I belonged.

Fast forward 15 years, after moving from learning disability residential care, into learning disability education and then finally into a specialist learning disability health role I was offered a secondment and I finally got my place onto the University of Chester’s BN (Hons) Learning Disability Nursing course.

I relished the variety of placements we were given, I felt challenged and motivated as I was increasing my knowledge to understand why we did things, to question my actions and that of others, to ensure my practice was the best it could be to support individuals who needed specialist learning disability nursing support.

In the three years of university my training was holistic, looking at child mental health, forensic issues, acute mental health and learning disability with the use of assessment and treatment units, and also genetic and physical conditions, including pregnancy support and social care as part of integration of services. I have also had the opportunity to spend time with the substance misuse teams.

As for Mentorship I was incredibly lucky, all my mentors and associate mentors were excellent, they challenged me, pushed me, and they gave me confidence and taught me more than I can write! During my training I discovered my love of learning disability forensic nursing, again something I had little experience of until I was given a placement within a specialist forensic setting.

Since qualifying I have worked in the community where I completed my preceptorship. I then worked within the criminal justice field which included courts and custody settings and also within learning disability children’s services. I am currently in a community team as the specialist link nurse for forensics within the team.

As a Learning Disability Nurse I feel every day is different, your skills are so diverse, de-escalation, thinking on your feet, inclusion, reasonable adjustments, equality, mental health act deprivation of liberty, mental capacity, communication augmentation, and the ability to work across boundaries and so many more.