Trust highlights the impact of learning disability nursing during QICN visit

03 Mar 26

We were delighted to welcome Steph Lawrence, Chief Executive of the QICN (Queen’s Institute of Community Nursing) to HPFT, where she met with some of our learning disability nurses and other professionals to find out more about what we do and how we support service users.

Seven staff members stand side by side with QICN Chief Executive Steph Lawrence in a red blouse in an office setting wearing ID badges and smart casual work clothes.

The visit took place at the Marlowes Health and Wellbeing Centre in Hemel Hempstead. The Centre is home to community mental health services for adults and children provided by HPFT including older people and those with learning disabilities.

The Learning Disabilities Team spoke to Steph about some of our successes and some of the challenges faced. There were rich conversations around the importance of the learning disability nurse profession and the importance of raising their profile within the community.

Steph also joined one of our community nurses on a home visit. The service user was delighted to meet Steph and showed her a photo album of his family and talked about the activities he enjoys taking part in. Steph was also introduced to his skateboarding and trampolining skills with videos that staff had taken of him. Steph shared how it was a real pleasure to meet him.

Sonia Ritson, Head of Nursing, Learning Disabilities, Rehabilitation & Forensic Division said: “It was a pleasure to introduce Steph to the team and highlight the breadth of work that we deliver and the impact we have. Hearing Steph talk about the history of the QICN and the contributions they make was inspiring.

“The visit provided colleagues with the opportunity to reflect on the exceptional work they do and acted as a reminder of why they are a learning disability nurse.”

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Trust highlights the impact of learning disability nursing during QICN visit