ABSTRACT
This chapter briefly reflects on the past but most importantly looks at the present and to the future of the modern intellectual disability nurse practitioner. It discusses issues affecting intellectual disability nursing, such as changing professional requirements, policy directions such as Strengthening the Commitment, and ever-growing opportunities for intellectual disability nurses to assert themselves in a widening practice arena. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the knowledge and practical skills that intellectual disability nurses will need to meet the needs of people with intellectual disabilities now and in the future, and this will be contextualised within the Nursing and Midwifery Council for the United Kingdom’s Future nurse standards and Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland Standards and requirements for competence.
