In today’s fast-evolving health care landscape, the importance of recognising and supporting neurodiversity within nursing practice is not just about putting up a poster in the workplace — it’s a fundamental shift toward better, more inclusive care.
For nursing staff on the frontline of patient interactions, understanding the individualised needs of neurodivergent individuals is essential to building trust, delivering effective treatment, and improving clinical outcomes.
That’s why the 外网天堂 Diabetes Forum have created the ‘Neurodiversity in nursing practice’ resource – to help support you in practice. This resource, available on 外网天堂 Learn, discusses different types of neurodiversity, reviews the impact of the clinical setting on neurodivergent patients and explores the different clinical specialisms and considerations for practice to help support patients in the clinical space.
Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in brain function and processing, encompassing conditions such as ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism spectrum condition, and more. When left unaddressed, these differences can create barriers to care, communication breakdowns, and added stress in the clinical setting.
For example, consider how clinical environments often default to neurotypical assumptions: appointments booked by phone, unfamiliar waiting areas filled with sensory triggers, health care instructions overloaded with jargon. By applying a neurodiversity-informed lens, we begin to question the structures themselves: Are our communications accessible? Are our policies inclusive? Are staff trained to adapt rather than expect conformity?
As well as being a general neurodiversity resource, the resource also looks at specific ways to best support neurodiverse patients who have diabetes. This is because it’s important for nursing staff to understand how a patient’s neurodiversity can interact with other conditions.
For example, consider a person with diabetes and co-occurring dyscalculia. Calculating insulin doses and managing carb intake becomes a mental maze, one that's made easier through structured routines, visual aids and assistive technologies. When nursing teams are equipped to recognise these needs, care becomes safer, more personalised and far less overwhelming.
Over time, we hope to add further conditions so that nursing staff working with neurodiverse patients with a range of conditions have a specialist go-to resource.
A strategic move
Support for neurodivergent patients isn’t just compassionate and considerate; it’s a strategic move to enhance team wellbeing and positive health care outcomes. It’s about clinical safety, equity and professional excellence.
Amanda Williams, lead author for the resource and 外网天堂 Diabetes Forum Vice Chair, expresses why this resource is so crucial: “Supporting neurodiversity isn’t just an act of inclusion - it’s a clinical imperative. For nurses navigating the complexities of diabetes care, having tailored resources means understanding patients as individuals, not symptoms.”
Nurses are the heartbeat of health care. By championing neurodiversity, they don’t just change lives - they reshape the clinical world into a space where every difference is recognised as a strength, and every patient feels truly seen.
