Jumping Through Hoops, Walking On Eggshells: An updated look at the experiences of student nurses with disabilities
Posted by Amanda Nichols
10 years ago, a study with the title mentioned above was published to little fanfare in a few nursing journals. It chronicled the situations of a specific group of student nurses with various types of disabilities, and the challenges that they faced while in school. The title comes from their collected feeling that they were "jumping through hoops" with regards to school policies and paperwork, often to the detriment of their schoolwork, and "walking on eggshells" in their clinical rotations, knowing that the would be judged far more harshly should they make a mistake than their non-disabled peers.
In some cases, those same peers made degrading comments to these students, saying that they were "taking slots away from those of us who aren't disabled."
That was 10 years ago, though. Surely we've come far from the stereotype of the young, healthy nurse?
Sadly, that is not the case. Professors refer to their students as being "young and healthy," despite the inclusion of much-older adult students. Clinical instructors send away, or outright publicly chastise, students on rotation for either using acceptable assistive devices or simply disclosing their health issues. And the "peers"-those students in the same nursing classes, regardless of age- react strongly when faced with an obvious disability, or attempt to ignore it completely.
I can speak from experience. I have seen the worry and dread cross the faces of traditional undergraduate girls as I walk past them when I use a cane. Except for the times I use a cane, my problem is not visible to the naked eye. A neurological exam, however, would tell you something is very wrong. I am lucky in this regard. I occasionally have a visual cue that also happens to be keeping me from teetering over. The nature of this issue, and indeed, the nature of most autoimmune diseases, is that of relapsing and remitting episodes. There are medications to slow these things down in many cases, but none to halt the process.
"So what?" you might think. "You use a cane sometimes. Big deal!"
It is a big deal when I can't get to my classroom because an elevator has been broken for weeks.
It is a big deal when no single "peer" in a packed nursing classroom will acknowledge that maybe the person using a cane should not be attempting to sit on the floor.
It is a big deal when the cost of caring for the underlying disease state cannot be factored into a financial aid award.
It is a big deal when I must "make up" clinical hours I was fully prepared to engage in.
It is a big deal when I am told I cannot participate.
I am not the only one. Perhaps my use of a cane makes me more visually obvious sometimes, but there are many others who have no such luxury. The feeling of being merely tolerated, instead of welcomed despite of my limitation, is prevalent. The limitations are mainly attitudinal in their nature, I realize that. I also realize that attitudes can be changed. The more people know of someone from a subculture, the more they understand. The less they fear. But if people do not even know that they share space with the very people they are afraid of, the attitude will never change. One voice needs many voices to make a chorus loud enough to be heard. One person cannot change the minds or the attitudes of a majority, blissfully unaware of the situation. Alternately, many voices can change the world.
I would like to challenge the college as a whole-- not just the SHS, not just the nursing department-- to re-evaluate attitudes held regarding students with disabilities pursuing nursing careers. A change will take time. But realizing that there is a fundamental flaw in the stereotype of the perfectly healthy health care worker is the first, and more important, step towards outright acceptance.
Posted: March 13, 2009 5:48 pm | 0 comments
Tags: ADA, disabilities, nursing
