‘Some adults with learning disabilities get confused and afraid with masks’

The initiative is designed to celebrate 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and the Midwife and aims to equip and empower the next generation of nurses and midwives as leaders, practitioners and advocates in health.

Our third profile this week is of Jolene Bradley, a Community Learning Disability Nurse at Brooke Lodge, Lakeview Hospital, Gransha Park.

Tell me about yourself

My name is Jolene Bradley and I am 27 years of age. I have been a Community Learning disability Nurse now for 10 months and I am thoroughly enjoying my new role.

I live with my fiancée at present and due to get married next year 2021.

I have four sisters and two brothers, and none of who works within the caring role, so I am called upon for all the injuries within the house!

Why did you chose your job?

I have been a qualified Learning Disability Nurse for six years and previously I worked in an Admission and Treatment ward for females with a learning disability.

Within this post I learnt a lot about myself and I developed many skills and knowledge from working with experienced and skilful staff.

I choose to be a learning disability nurse when I was lower 6th in school. I started Voluntary work with a local SPRED group at home who provide friendships and opportunities for people with a learning disability to be fully included in the liturgical life of their parish.

I also volunteered with Special Olympics as I come from a sporting background myself and this gave me the insight into adults with a learning disabilities’ lives and how much support and help they require to have the best quality of life.

What has changed in your role due to COVID 19? Changes to services?

During the COVID-19 pandemic not much has changed within my role as a Community Learning Disability Nurse.

We have been continuing house calls and administrating prescribed treatments however prior to these calls we carry out a risk assessment over the phone with family or carers.

In some cases adults with a learning disability get confused and frightened with the masks and face shields and also it limits communication, so the use of easy read materials have been imperative within our role during the pandemic.

I have undertaken many Zoom trainings online about the current pandemic and also I got the opportunity to test a gentleman in the community for COVID-19.

I found this challenging as the gentleman was displaying symptoms and required a test however he had challenging behaviour and autism so it took a long time for him to consent to the procedure, but thankfully he did and the result was negative.

The ‘Journal’ carried a profile of Lisa Magee, a nurse at the North West Cancer Centre in a previous edition.