‘Intellectual disability nursing, the Cinderella relation of nursing’: an exploration of marginality through oral history

This paper draws on work undertaken for an oral history project during 2018 - 2020, which sought to explore the careers of 31 intellectual disability nurses from England, UK and the Republic of Ireland, with at least thirty years experience. In both jurisdictions some participants had worked within long-stay institutions built in previous centuries, which have now all but closed; being replaced with smaller living configurations. Few practising intellectual disability nurses have experience of working in such institutions, and this makes it apposite to hear their important stories. Their narratives provide new insights into how these nurses have been marginalised from their professional group by a complex interplay of hegemonic tensions, parallel stigmatisation, recruitment issues, and emotional labour.