Reactions of nurses and therapists in mainstream health services to contact with people who have learning disabilities

Government policy in the United Kingdom is to make the National Health Serv ice accessible to all citizens, including those who hitherto may have relie d on specialist services. It is recognized that the attitudes of health pro fessionals can be a major influence in making this happen. To date there ha s been a paucity of research studies involving nurses and therapists, two o f the largest groupings of health care workers. The present study contraste d the reactions of nurses and therapists to their contact with people who h ave learning disabilities, with those of staff working in specialist servic es for this client group, and with students who are not involved in health services. Over 1000 respondents - mainly university students on undergradua te or post-graduate courses - completed a written questionnaire. Although n urses and therapists had significantly less contact with people who had lea rning disabilities during their work than did staff in specialist services, there were no differences in terms of contact in personal life. In both in stances their contacts were higher than those reported for non-healthcare s tudents. However both nurses and therapists were significantly less confide nt in working with a patient who had learning disabilities as opposed to on e with physical disabilities. By contrast, willingness for social contacts did not vary across the four groups although respondents with previous pers onal contact were significantly more willing for this than those with no pr ior contact. The results confirm that the form of contact is a more salient variable on staff attitudes than contact per se. Hence, changed reactions are more likely to come about from successful contacts in a work rather tha n social environment. The implications are discussed for initial and post-q ualifying training courses, especially for suitable placement experiences. Suggestions are made for future research that focuses on increasing the exp ertise and confidence of nurses and therapists in working with patients who have learning disabilities.