This chapter focuses on exploring decision making in the learning disability nursing field of practice. Previous chapters have covered the background about decision making, the principles, tools, and the use of evidence, as well as the way in which decision making fits in with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Standards for Pre-Registration Nursing Education (NMC 2010) and competencies. The content of these early chapters and learning will help you to build your understanding of the issues when applied particularly to learning disability nursing skills in practice. This chapter also follows those addressing decision making in mental health nursing, children and young people’s nursing, and adult nursing. This ‘separating out’ of the fields of practice is helpful to give particular clarity and focus to issues relevant within them. It is, however, equally important to remind you that these apparently clear-cut distinctions between the disciplines are not necessarily reflected in practice, and that clients and patients do not always fit neatly into these artificial ‘boxes’. People with a learning disability have a right to equal treatment from registered nurses in adult and mental health settings, and children and young people with learning disabilities should expect the same standard of care as their typically developing peers. The NMC’s The Code: Standards of Conduct, Performance and Ethics for Nurses and Midwives (NMC 2008: 3) reminds us that ‘You must not discriminate in any way against those in your care’ and that ‘You must treat people as individuals and respect their dignity’. So, whatever your chosen future field of practice, please read on, because when people with learning disabilities require nursing, they are—and always will be—your responsibility too. Case study 12.1 has been chosen intentionally to highlight the partnership working and decision making that can go on between adult nurse specialists and learning disability nurses. The underpinning value base of decision making in learning disability nursing today is best understood with brief reference to the past. It is in recent memory for many service users that ‘home’ was a long-stay hospital ward or villa, which, despite the best efforts of nursing staff, would invariably be managed along quite regimented lines.
