A Scottish university has launched a new, flexible route for healthcare support workers to train to become a learning disability nurse.

The new ‘Earn as You Learn’ hybrid pathway on offer at Glasgow Caledonian University allows candidates all over Scotland to live and work in their local area while studying.

Students on the hybrid pathway will remain employed by their NHS board on the same salaries and working conditions while completing the remote three-year degree full-time.

They will participate in online lectures and tutorials alongside students on-campus, providing peer support and enhancing a sense of belonging to the University.

Students will also carry out practice placements delivered in collaboration with their employer, while gaining experience in mental health assessment, community teams, in-patient treatment units and a variety of other specialist services including epilepsy.

Graduates will be able to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council as fully qualified learning disability nurses.  

The launch of the new course comes after the number of learning disability nurses working in Scotland fell to its lowest point in more than a decade in June 2023.

Senior lecturer Mark Gallagher, who leads the new pathway, says the course offers both a career development opportunity to those unable to take a more traditional route to nursing and an attempt to tackle shortfalls in the learning disability nursing workforce:

“This innovative programme will enable people who wish to advance their careers and ultimately make a difference in the lives of individuals with a learning disability to do so without having to give up employment or relocate outside their home area.

“This is an exciting opportunity that promotes the University’s common good mission by offering an alternative route into higher education.

“Importantly, it also supports workforce planning in learning disability nursing, particularly in areas outside central Scotland.”

Learning disability nurses are the only professional group specifically educated to work with people who have learning disabilities.

They are employed in the NHS, third sector, education, independent hospitals and care homes, carrying out varied roles often at the intersection of these services.

However, the Royal College of Nursing has raised concerns over the falling number of learning disability nurses working in NHS Scotland.

Almost a quarter (24.7%) of NHS learning disability nursing staff are now aged 55 or above, and there are also significant shortfalls of new students, where 49% fewer students began learning disability nursing degree courses than planned last autumn.

The new hybrid course comes as part of national efforts to improve the recruitment and retention of nurses and midwives.

One of the recommendations made by an expert Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce, which reported to the Scottish government earlier this year, was to widen access to nursing careers through alternative degree programmes – including options for distance learning.

The new Glasgow Caledonian programme is fully funded by the Scottish government and NHS boards that are supporting an employee will also receive £10,000 per candidate.

The Open University already offers an Earn as You Learn route for healthcare workers across Scotland to qualify as adult, mental health, learning disability or children and young people nurses.

Three cohorts of nurse trainees are also currently working towards mental health nursing registration through a traineeship programme delivered jointly by NHS Lothian and the Open University.

 

Read more: "Earn as you learn" to be a nurse; First doctors graduate with "innovative" med degree

 

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