| PEER-REVIEWED | evidence & practice / service delivery Background In March 2020 healthcare services across the UK underwent rapid changes to service delivery due to the emergence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), with a complete shift to working from home outside of inpatient care settings. Many nurses felt underprepared and ill-equipped to manage the breadth and speed of the required changes (Mitchell 2020) and these feelings were a recognised cause of distress among Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an unprecedented level of change in service delivery across the NHS and nurses needed to adapt their practice quickly. However, to date, there has been little recognition of the challenges encountered during the pandemic by learning disability nurses. This article outlines a listening exercise that was undertaken to gather insights into the experiences and contributions of learning disability nurses during the first wave of the pandemic. Nine reflective group discussions were held via video conferencing with 2 6 learning disability nurses. Themes were extracted from these discussions. The findings revealed negative and positive effects of the pandemic on learning disability nursing practice. They show that learning disability nurses have responded to the pandemic with increased collaboration, creativity and commitment in an effort to maintain the health and well-being of service users. The insights gained from these reflective discussions enabled an understanding of how organisations and learning disability nurses managed the transformation of services during the first wave. Author details Carmel Bond, research assistant, Florence Nightingale Foundation, London, and doctoral researcher, Centre for Health Innovation, Leadership and Learning, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, England; Gemma Stacey, director of academy, Florence Nightingale Foundation, London, England; Ellie Gordon, senior nurse learning disability and mental health, Health Education England, London, England; David Harling, head of learning disability nursing, NHS England and NHS Improvement, London, England Keywords coronavirus, COVID-19, learning disability, management, morale, professional, professional issues, staff attitudes, staff welfare, teamwork, workforce Citation Bond C, Stacey G, Gordon E et al (2021) COVID-19: experiences and contributions of learning disability nurses during the first wave of the pandemic. Learning Disability Practice. doi: 10.7748/ldp.2021.e2147 Peer review This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software Correspondence policy@florence- nightingale-foundation. org.uk \ @FNightingaleF Conflict of interest None declared Accepted 26 February 2021 Published online June 2021 Why you should read this article: ● To understand how learning disability nurses were affected during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic ● To learn how learning disability nurses responded to COVID-19 by adapting service delivery ● To develop ideas so you can continue to provide high-quality care for people with learning disabilities during COVID-19 COVID-19: experiences and contributions of learning disability nurses during the first wave of the pandemic Carmel Bond, Gemma Stacey, Ellie Gordon et al learningdisabilitypractice.com volume 24 number 4 / August 2021 / 17 Permission To reuse this article or for information about reprints and permissions, contact permissions@rcni.com