Clinical placements in intellectual disability nurse education: A scoping review

Abstract

Intellectual disability undergraduate nurse education is provided in partnership between third level institutes and healthcare providers. The changing healthcare landscape has resulted in a reduction of the number of clinical placement's available to students, as persons with intellectual disabilities previously supported in institutional settings are now supported to live more independently and included within their community. This review aims to identify the range and efficacy of clinical placement's currently utilised within intellectual disability undergraduate nurse education. A scoping review framework was utilised to present a broad understanding and knowledge synthesis of the available literature. A systematic search strategy detected relevant papers across eight electronic databases. A total of 451 non-duplicate papers were identified. The review methods yielded ten papers for inclusion. Of these papers, nine were from the United Kingdom (UK) and one from Australia. Findings indicate that there is limited published literature on this topic and a notable absence of literature from Ireland, which is one of only two countries that have direct entry intellectual disability undergraduate nurse education. This review highlights the need to explore alternative placement options not traditionally considered/available to undergraduate nursing students and that further research is needed in this area.