Siobhan Wood

I currently work as a band 6 learning disability & autism liaison nurse in an acute hospital. I work in a small team. I support people with a learning disability and/or autism to gain equal access to healthcare with the aim of decreasing the health inequalities this group face. My role is varied and ever changing, requiring a ‘think outside the box’ attitude, planning reasonable adjustments to help make the hospital environment more accessible for people.

Part of my role is to work within a large MDT – supporting patients holistically to meet their health and social care needs. Our service is constantly evolving and improving, with a drive to increase learning disability and autism training to all professionals. We regularly have students and other professionals shadowing our team so there is a strong teaching/mentorship aspect of my job role.

Working in an acute healthcare setting through a pandemic, there has been a noticeable shift in morale across teams. The focus for a long time has been on surviving rather than thriving. There’s been a noticeable shift again as we start to find a new norm with covid – healthcare and especially my team are focusing again on service improvement/development.

I’m very passionate about learning disability nursing and I’m looking forward to increasing my confidence and developing my leadership skills. This programme will support and inspire me to improve my influence across the hospital. I feel this will have a positive effect on creating caring cultures across the MDT and for patients/families.