Supporting Nurses and Nursing Students with Disabilities

Supporting Nurses and Nursing Students with Disabilities
Neal-Boylan, Leslie PhD, RN, APRN, CRRN, FAAN; Marks, Beth PhD, RN; McCulloh, Karen J. BSN, RN
AJN, American Journal of Nursing:
October 2015 – Volume 115 – Issue 10 – p 11

Federal agencies and nursing organizations say it’s high time to put aside preconceptions.
Nursing students and nurses with disabilities face discrimination and bias both in schools of nursing and in the workplace. This can be overt or subtle and can take many forms. In March 2014, nurses spoke up on behalf of, and with, nurses with disabilities at a policy roundtable in Washington, DC, cosponsored by the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND) and the Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy. Representatives from several federal agencies and national nursing organizations attended the meeting, where a plan of action was developed through the collaboration of federal agencies, nursing and disability rights organizations, nurse educators, researchers, clinicians, and nurses with disabilities.