Alex McClimens and Charlotte Nutting suggest that, for as long as the learning disability nursing profession has existed, its practitioners have been marginalised

Just as there is a stigma associated with people with learning disabilities, there is a ‘parallel stigma’ that affects the nurses who care for them. Although parallel stigma has decreased in recent years, discriminatory attitudes and behaviours remain, especially as the already inequitable care of clients is threatened further by measures to reduce public sector spending. This article puts parallel stigma in a historical context and calls on nurses and other front line workers to prevent further erosion of care provision.