Ruth Northway

Ruth Northway, born in 1961, is a British nurse and nursing academic who specializes in learning disabilities. She is a professor of learning disability nursing at the University of South Wales and is described as the first Professor of Learning Disability Nursing in the United Kingdom. Originally from Llantrisant in Mid Glamorgan, she chose nursing because she enjoyed working with people with learning disabilities, worked as a learning disability nurse, and moved into nurse education in 1989. She earned a master of science degree in economics in 1994 and a doctorate from the University of Bristol in 1998 with a thesis on oppression in the lives of people with learning difficulties. Her academic interests include participatory action research and safeguarding, and she co-wrote Safeguarding Adults in Nursing Practice in 2013. She edited the Journal of Intellectual Disabilities from 2013 to 2019, chaired the Royal College of Nursing Research Society from 2011, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2016 for services to learning disability nursing. This entry records what is publicly stated about her career and gives no medical advice.