CitySCaPE: Moving beyond indifference in education for pre-registration nurses about learning disability

People with learning disabilities and Autism continue to suffer from the delivery of ineffective and inadequate care from health services CitySCaPE (City Simulated Community and Practice Environment) is a multi media resource delivering a simulation of situations student nurses may encounter in relation to service users with learning disabilities. The resource is applicable to adult, mental health and children's nursing. It is delivered in a blended approach to students in the first part of their programme as part of their simulated practice. Following the implementation of the resource an evaluation of student experience was undertaken using a mixed methods approach. 146 responses were obtained to a questionnaire containing quantitative and qualitative data. The findings indicate that this is a pedagogy that suits a variety of learning styles, is deemed to be realistic and improves the understanding of nursing students about the care of people with learning disabilities in generic practice areas. It is anticipated that CitySCaPE can be used as a model for delivery of practice based learning in areas that are often challenging to teach and demonstrate using a service user and person centred approach.