Rosie Jenkinson

Since 2018, I have been a community learning disabilities nurse in South Cumbria working with a wide range of ages and abilities. Currently I work with a large caseload which I am responsible for. Therefore, I have to be organised and manage my time efficiently and prioritise my workload in accordance with need and risk. My caseload covers the four pathways: challenging behavior, physical health, mental health and forensic needs. As a result, I work collaboratively with a wide range of health professionals who are involved in the individual’s care. I attend regular multidisciplinary meetings, reviews and advocate on behalf of my service user, aiming to create positive outcomes for the service user, family and their support team.

This programme will give me time to reflect on clinical practice and highlight areas where I need further experience and knowledge. I hope it will improve people’s experiences of the service and enable me to develop leadership skills which I can use in everyday practice when supervising and mentoring health care assistant and student nurses.

I’m hoping to develop physical health pathway within the community learning disabilities team by setting up workshops to desensitise and educate individuals who have a learning disability, to ensure they have a good quality annual health check and to help improve health outcomes for people with a learning disability. I also hope to be able to improve the uptake of local and national programmes for individuals with a learning disability.