Learning disability: dimensions of professional empowerment

Abstract

In contemporary nursing, the term 'empowerment' has forged a firm position in the language of professionals. It is often used as a politically correct word to describe clients' outcomes and nursing practice. The inevitable link between the lifestyles of people with learning disabilities and learning disability nursing has bound the differing ideologies of empowerment to provide a central theme for learning disability nursing practice. However, with little evidence of critical analysis of nursing practice and discourses, the notion of empowerment remains controversial and nebulous. The continual search of the learning disability nursing profession to ensure its contribution fits the ethos of the day, challenges it to enter the empowerment debate. Within this debate nursing must actively clarify whether it has a reactive or proactive part to play.

This paper's primary aim is to discuss professional empowerment within the context of learning disability nursing practice. A shift in power between the social and health care interface raises questions about how nursing will develop and use its power. A conceptual framework of professional empowerment is offered to enhance the understanding of learning disability nursing. It focuses on the interface and boundaries in learning disability practice and includes: (a) the micro layer- practice within an enclosed boundary; (b) the meso layer - opening the boundary; (c) the macro layer - the sociopolitical realities. This framework provides learning disability nursing with a world view of practice that is dynamic and challenges nurses to transform it further.