Background: People with intellectual disabilities are more likely to experience sleep problems, which can affect quality of life, physical health, mental health and well‐being.Methods: An integrative literature review was conducted to investigate what is known about behavioural sleep disturbances in people with an intellectual disability. The search used the following databases: Scopus, PsycInfo and Cinahl, to find papers published since 2015.Results: Within intellectual disability research, sleep appears as a common issue due to its high prevalence, negative relationships with an individual's physical and mental health, their quality of life, and impact of sleep problems on family or carers. The growing evidence base appears to support the use of behavioural, lifestyle and pharmacological interventions to improve sleep in people with an intellectual disability.Conclusion: A wide array of literature provides evidence that people with intellectual disabilities are affected by and need support with their sleep.

Background People with intellectual disabilities are more likely to experience sleep problems. Sleep can impact on health and well-being; therefore, evidence-based interventions are required to improve sleep in this population. Method An integrative literature review was conducted on the impact of nutrition on sleep in people with intellectual disabilities. Following screening of papers (n = 289), 14 papers met the inclusion criteria. Results Themes related to nutrition and improved overall well-being, use of nutritional supplements, specific foods, links to health comorbidities and food fussiness. Conclusion This is the first comprehensive review completed on nutritional interventions to improve sleep in people with intellectual disabilities. Dietary patterns may be an important factor to improving the quality and quantity of sleep. However, the current literature regarding the benefit of improved nutrition on sleep in people with an intellectual disability needs to be interpreted with caution.

Pedagogic approaches which promote collaboration and communication across undergraduate student groups are important for nursing, medical, social care, and education programmes. However, academics’ perceptions of developing these events and examples of how to plan and implement learning opportunities of this nature remain infrequent within the existing literature. To address this gap, the current paper provides an analysis of academics’ reflections on designing, developing and delivering an innovative simulation-based interprofessional education (IPE) event organised across two universities. Academics involved in either the design and/or facilitation of the interprofessional event were invited to complete a reflective account of their experience. Eight academic members of staff completed a reflective account from which three themes emerged. Themes included communication, valuing others and organisation. These accounts suggest that simulation-based IPE can be a useful teaching and learning strategy. However, resourcing and organisational factors should be carefully considered when planning IPE events.

The undergraduate nursing students’ final year project, commonly called a ‘dissertation’ is an important component of the bachelor’s nursing programme. It can take the form of a literature review and proposal for a research or service improvement project. While crucial for developing research competence and evidence-based practice skills in preparation for their future careers, nursing students often find the dissertation process highly stressful. An online qualitative survey comprising open-ended questions was used to elicit nursing students’ rich, reflective accounts of the dissertation process at a university in the Northeast of England (hereafter referred to as the study site) from those who have recently completed their dissertations. The data obtained from 24 pre-registration nursing students who responded to the survey were thematically analysed. The findings revealed that critical relationships and essential support systems were key mediators of the challenges students faced, particularly a lack of readiness for the dissertation module, but they ultimately achieved transformative outcomes of an effective learning experience. Their navigational challenges can inform curriculum design and practices to better support students in their dissertation journey.

Background: People with learning disabilities often use visual data such as photographs and graffiti walls to express themselves, and recently there has been a rise in research methods that include visual data collection. Visual data can be collected during interviews with people with disabilities by using communication tools such as Talking Mats. Aim: To explore the benefits of triangulating visual and verbal data collected through interviewing people with learning disabilities. Method: A new multimethod approach was used involving the collection and analysis of visual and verbal data. Six participants with mild-to-moderate learning disabilities were interviewed about their sleep issues using the Talking Mats tool, which involves the placement of picture cards and symbols to express feelings or opinions, and through questions about their experience of sleep issues, to which they responded verbally and non-verbally. Data were interpreted using triangulation and compared with a Likert-type scoring system. Findings: The triangulation of visual and verbal data provided the researchers with a greater understanding of participants’ experiences and perceptions about sleep issues than simply summing responses to Talking Mats using a Likert-type scale. Conclusion: The use of a multimethod approach to data collection gives visual and verbal data equal status and provides a greater depth of understanding of the findings than either data set would provide in isolation. Consequently, this can increase the credibility and confirmability of research findings and enhance insight into the phenomena under investigation.

In this chapter, students of nursing will explore the role of the intellectual disability nurse in promoting the health and well-being of people with intellectual disabilities. This will be contextualised within the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for the United Kingdom and Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland (NMBI) standards and requirements for competence.