Naomi Dawson

Senior Community Children’s Learning Disability Nurse, HCRG Care Group, Salisbury

Since qualifying in 2018, I have been working in Community Children’s Learning Disability Services in Wiltshire and Banes. I hold a Band 6 position, offering support to those in the team via 1:1 supervision, ad hoc support for members of the team, I facilitate a monthly article discussion group and group formative supervision, I also supporting student nurses on placement, as well as holding a caseload across the two counties.

The job entails working closely with families and their children who have either a learning disability diagnosis or working diagnosis. Primarily we complete a holistic assessment and provide care and support with behaviour, sleep and toileting as well as a whole host of other issues. We provide care plans and resources to the families and complete a maximum of 6 visits per episode of care. We work with other agencies such as school, CAMHS and social care.

I want to provide the best person-centred care for our patients, for staff to feel empowered and students to have the best learning experience during their placements. I currently strive for a culture where staff feel well supported and part of a team (although we lone work). I am keen to develop shared decision making with regards to care (so families can feel empowered) and the improvement of the service is developed by the families who use the service and the team who work in the services.

As a team, we have seen our caseloads increase over the past two years and have had to adapt the way we work and provide care, as a team, we are still very passionate about making positive changes to the way we work and I am keen to network with others, to share and reflect on how we can make improvements.