RCN Foundation announces call for applicants to undertake a research study exploring the impact of Registered Nurses for Learning Disability on health inequalities for people with a lived experience of a learning disability
The RCN Foundation has today announced a funding call of up to £30,000 for applications from individuals or organisations to undertake a research study that explores the impact of RNLDs on health inequalities, health related quality of life outcomes, and premature deaths for people with a lived experience of a learning disability (LD).
In 2019, the RCN Foundation funded a scoping review by University of West London into understanding the impact that Learning Disability Nurses can have on improving the health and well-being of children, adults, and older people with learning disabilities. The review demonstrated the importance of RNLDs and how they improve the health, healthcare experiences, and quality of life of people with learning disabilities. However, it recommended that more work is needed to find out more about how people with learning disabilities benefit from what RNLDs do.
This funding call is an integral part of the RCN Foundation’s wider programme of work on Learning Disability Nursing. The research seeks to demonstrate the impact that RNLDs have on health inequalities and people with a lived experience of an LD. The outputs and outcomes of the research will be used to raise awareness of the importance of the role of RNLDs in improving the health outcomes of individuals with a learning disability and to provide guidance to the RNLD workforce on how to explain the impact they have on this aspect of care. The lived experience of individuals with an LD will be central to the research and all four countries of the UK should be considered.
Deepa Korea, Director of the RCN Foundation, said: “Recognising the importance of learning disability nursing and its contributions to healthcare in the UK is crucial, even more so when so little is known and when attrition rates from this field of nursing are at an all-time high. Funding research that explores the impact of learning disability nursing, I hope, will ultimately reduce health inequality, and enhance health related quality of life outcomes for those with lived experience of a learning disability.”
The project should be undertaken in 2023-2024. Applications are now open and close on Monday 13 November 2023 at 5pm.
For more information visit the RCN Foundation website.
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Notes to Editors
For further information, please contact Dr Sarah McGloin, Head of Grants and Impact at the RCN Foundation: Sarah.McGloin@rcnfoundation.org.uk.
About the RCN Foundation
The RCN Foundation is an independent charity whose purpose is to support and strengthen nursing and midwifery to improve the health and wellbeing of the public. It is there for every current and former nurse, midwife, and health care support worker, as well as students and nursing associates. The Foundation supports individual members of the nursing and midwifery teams by providing grants to those who are facing hardship, or who want to enhance their skills and develop their practice; it invests in the professions by funding nursing and midwifery-led projects; and it champions nursing and midwifery by supporting projects that raise the profile of the profession and highlight the contribution that nursing and midwifery makes to improving the nation’s health.
The Foundation is chaired by Professor Jane Cummings CBE, a former Chief Nursing Officer for England.
Registered charity number: SC043663 (Scotland) 1134606 (England and Wales)