Nursing with a long term condition
If you're a healthcare professional with a long-term condition, this page contains helpful resources, case studies and information on how to get peer to peer support from other RCN members.
There is also advice around reasonable adjustments for long-term conditions and a new LTC Health Ability Passport template, designed to capture specific needs around long-term conditions at work.
Support for members with long-term conditions
A long-term condition (LTC) can be defined as a ‘health problem that requires ongoing management over a period of years or decades and is one that cannot currently be cured but can be controlled with the use of medication and/or other therapies’ (NHS Data Model and Dictionary, 2024). This means that for nursing staff working with a long-term condition, suitable practical support and/or reasonable adjustments may be needed to maintain a healthy work environment.
The RCN's peer support network includes members living with long-term conditions and is a great way to combat isolation whether you have a new diagnosis, are navigating working life, or considering ill health or age related retirement.
If you have questions about your rights and responsibilities at work or feel you are being treated unfairly as a result of your long-term condition, please contact RCN Direct.
On these pages, we share stories from members with lived experience long-term conditions and resources to help you.
Reasonable adjustments for long-term conditions
Our Health Ability Passport guidance has been developed with members with lived experience of disability, neurodivergence and long-term conditions.
With Callum Metcalfe-O'Shea, RCN professional lead for long-term conditions, we have reviewed the guidance to make sure it supports members with a long-term condition diagnosis.
Use the guidance along with our long-term condition specific passport template to ensure you have helpful conversations with your line manager that:
- Consider your specialist team reviews to ensure adjustments remain effective and appropriate
- Look at the impacts of medications and treatments and make adjustments around this
- Acknowledge fluctuating symptoms and plan for flare ups.
Long-term conditions passport
