With age comes wisdom (apparently)

My journey into learning disability (LD) nursing began when I was a free-spirited 18-year-old. I was looking for something interesting to do amidst the hitchhiking, festival-going, partying and general hedonism that every rebellious teenager worth their salt did with gusto back in the glorious 1980’s (antics which are now thankfully confined to the annals of history). 

Having enjoyed myself far too much to pass my A levels, I found myself working as a health care assistant in a range of nursing and care homes following my GCSE resits (I failed my O levels for the same reason). I very much enjoyed my time in these homes, learning every day from the older and much wiser people that I supported. 

This was interspersed with other jobs, including a temporary postwoman (which I loved and would have definitely considered as an alternative to nursing), a stock assistant, a cashier (which led to my only experience of being sacked from a job for being completely inept), a barmaid and… the list is almost endless. For a long time, I insisted that I would not take on the responsibilities of a qualified nurse.

My search for meaningful activity took me to a Birmingham-based charity that arranged annual activity holidays for teenagers from deprived backgrounds. This included individuals both with and without disabilities who were often held back because of their social situation. The aim was to promote independence, inclusion and integration, and the holidays achieved all of that and then some. 

For the next ten years, I immersed myself every year in a world where streetwise teenagers overcame their apprehensiveness to joyfully help their counterparts to climb mountains (literally pulling wheelchairs with ropes on occasion), build rafts, go deep sea fishing, canoe, sail… nothing was out of bounds, regardless of ability or indeed, disability. It was astonishing to see what could be achieved with teamwork and enthusiasm from disadvantaged teenagers who would otherwise have missed out because of the assumption that their physical or psychological condition, or their social situation, would create a barrier to their inclusion. 

I eventually gave in and decided that nursing was the place to be. I joined an adult nursing program at the age of 22, not realising that LD nursing was a thing until a year later, when I joined the second year of the LD nursing program with a cohort of twelve students. Sadly, the cohort dwindled down to four who completed the course and qualified. After 27 years, LD nursing is still not recognised for the fabulous and skilled role that it is, and the continually diminishing numbers remains a travesty.

The following years took me to various places around the country. I started in an ageing long-stay hospital that was slowly being dismantled, and then worked my way through various nursing roles from Bristol up to North Yorkshire. Most of my experiences found me working with people with behaviours that were considered by society to be ‘challenging’, some of whom were detained in secure units. Over the years, I learned that while some of these behaviours did present a risk, others were considered challenging simply because they did not meet with social norms.

I continued working in various roles ranging from community nurse specialising in behaviour assessment in Birmingham, to deputy team lead for a community learning disability team in Scarborough, and various places in between. I took a brief sojourn at 30, pretending that I wasn’t too old to be young and carefree, and went to teach conversational English in Tokyo. After that, I returned to North Yorkshire where I was offered a job as Forensic Community Charge Nurse. Thus, my interest in offending behaviour and mental disorder in people with learning disabilities was piqued.

After several years of traversing the North Yorks moors and the beautiful coastline of Northern England, I returned home to the Black Country. I worked for six years as Mental Impairment Community Nurse in the wonderfully diverse city of Wolverhampton, with an enormous caseload of offenders with learning disabilities. I then moved on to a post as Lecturer/ Practitioner for three years, until I joined the swathes of nurses who were made redundant. Luckily, I was able to secure a new post as Senior Lecturer for Learning Disability Nursing, and – finding myself older and marginally more responsible – I realised that academia was a rewarding path to take.

Watching student nurses blossom into confident practitioners was a hugely satisfying role which I enjoyed greatly. Over the next thirteen years, I realised that education wasn’t so bad after all. Having completed my MSc in Forensic Mental Health Care and my PGCHEPP (both at the same time whilst working and raising children; something that I would not recommend under any circumstances!), I took on the role of Course Director for Learning Disability Nursing. Finally, I moved here to the RCN to work as Lead Nurse for Independent Health and Social Care (IHSC).

With age comes wisdom as they say, and it took me far too long to realise that nursing, and specifically LD nursing, is a career that brings with it great value and purpose. Working in IHSC can be challenging, however the people who have chosen to pursue their vocation in this sector are some of the most passionate, hard-working and highly-skilled professionals one could wish to meet.

I only hope that in my current role, I can do them justice.

Please feel free to contact me at vicky.sandy-davis@rcn.org.uk to discuss any issues related to IHSC, LD nursing, justice, mental health and mental disorder, how to manage rebellious teenagers (any tips very welcome!) and any other general gossip I can incorporate into my work with my wonderful colleagues here at the RCN.