Use your E-resource password to view these articles!
Registered nurses (RNs) with physical disabilities experience discrimination in the workplace. Researchers have found that nurses with disabilities often leave the nursing profession because they feel discriminated against or they fear they will jeopardize patient safety. However, there are no documented incidents of patient injury related specifically to a nurse’s disability.
Common themes emerge from the research on nurses with disabilities:
Nurses with physical and/or sensory disabilities often leave nursing because they fear they will jeopardize patient safety or they feel discriminated against.
Nurses may try to hide their disabilities if that is possible and compensate for the disability if it is not.
Nurses with a disability frequently feel singled out even though they may have felt a sense of belonging prior to acquiring the disability.
There is a tendency to return to school to increase job choices and enable the nurse to select positions that require less physical effort.
Some nurses ultimately leave nursing because they feel they are not supported by colleagues and administrators or they are unaware of their legal rights.
Source: American Nurse Journal