Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of the research was to explore the perceptions of nursing faculty that create educational barriers for academically prepared students with physical disabilities. A case report of a woman who uses a wheelchair and earned her undergraduate nursing degree is presented.
Background: The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to identify the essential functions of employee positions to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. For in-patient RN roles this might include standing for 12 hours or ability to lift 50 pounds. Pre-licensure nursing programs often use these functions as technical standards in admission requirements. This is not consistent with the diverse in-patient and community roles for RNs of all abilities. Understanding perspectives of faculty and other decision-makers is an important step to make nursing education more accommodating for students with physical disabilities.
Methods: The exploratory study was conducted with 111 nursing faculty across the US. An online survey tool was created from the 22 outcomes in AACN’s 2008 BSN Essentials Standard IX - Generalist Practice. Participants were asked their perceptions regarding the ability of a student who uses a wheelchair to achieve these outcomes on a 6-point scale. For the case report, open-ended questions regarding educational experiences were answered in a virtual interview.
Results: Although some outcomes were complex statements, they were separated into predominantly cognitive, affective, or psychomotor domains for analysis. Faculty participant agreement that a student who uses a wheelchair could meet the 14 cognitive and affective domain outcomes was 88-100% but for psychomotor domain outcomes it was 66-90%. The case report provides insight into how students with physical disabilities can achieve psychomotor skills in the clinical and lab setting.
Conclusions: These faculty believed students with physical disability could meet cognitive and affective outcomes, but had reservations about psychomotor outcomes. This is not surprising based on the alignment of pre-licensure clinical nursing education with hospital-based bedside nursing. Since RNs who experience disability find meaningful practice, a paradigm shift is needed in nursing education to be inclusive of academically qualified students with physical disabilities. In clinical and lab settings, collaboration can allow these students to meet program outcomes with individualized accommodations.
Notes
References:
Ailey, S. H., & Marks, B. (2017). Technical standards for nursing education programs in the 21st century. Rehabilitation Nursing: The Official Journal of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, 42(5), 245–253. https://doi.org/10.1002/rnj.278
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2008). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. http://www.aacnnursing.org/portals/42/publications/baccessentials08.pdf
Calloway, K., & Copeland, D. (2021). Acute care nurses' attitudes toward nursing students with disabilities: A focused ethnography. Nurse Education in Practice, 51, 102960. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2020.102960
Elting, J.K. (2024). Breaking barriers: Completing nursing education in a wheelchair. American Nurse Journal, 19(5), 14-18. Doi: 10.51256/ANJ052414
Elting, J. K., Avit, E., & Gordon, R. (2021). Nursing faculty perceptions regarding students with physical disabilities. Nurse Educator, 46(4), 225–229. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000940
Englund, H. M., & Lancaster, R. J. (2022). Differences in marginality between nursing students with and without disabilities. The Journal of Nursing Education, 61(8), 429–438. https://doi.org/10.3928/01484834-20220602-03
Marks, B., & Sisirak, J. (2022, Sept 30). Nurses with disability: Transforming healthcare for all. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 27(3). https://www.doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol27No03Man04
Neal-Boylan L. (2020). Commentary: Nursing students with disabilities: Technical standards revisited. Rehabilitation Nursing: The Official Journal of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses, 45(6), 321–322. https://doi.org/10.1097/RNJ.0000000000000296
Olkin, R. (2022, March 29). Conceptualizing disability: Three models of disability. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/psychology-teacher-network/introductory-psychology/disability-models
Ramluggun, P., Jackson, D., & Usher, K. (2021). Supporting students with disabilities in pre-registration nursing programmes. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 30(2), 353–356. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.12793
U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended. Pub. L. No. 101-336, 104 Stat. 328. https://www.ada.gov/law-and-regs/ada
Sigma Membership
Omega Nu
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Pilot/Exploratory Study
Keywords:
DEI/BIPOC, Curriculum Development, Faculty Development, Nursing Education, Advances in Education, Students with Disabilities
Recommended Citation
Elting, Julie Kientz, "Inclusion of Students with Physical Disabilities in Nursing Education" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 150.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/150
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-11-30
Inclusion of Students with Physical Disabilities in Nursing Education
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Purpose: The purpose of the research was to explore the perceptions of nursing faculty that create educational barriers for academically prepared students with physical disabilities. A case report of a woman who uses a wheelchair and earned her undergraduate nursing degree is presented.
Background: The Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to identify the essential functions of employee positions to prevent discrimination against people with disabilities. For in-patient RN roles this might include standing for 12 hours or ability to lift 50 pounds. Pre-licensure nursing programs often use these functions as technical standards in admission requirements. This is not consistent with the diverse in-patient and community roles for RNs of all abilities. Understanding perspectives of faculty and other decision-makers is an important step to make nursing education more accommodating for students with physical disabilities.
Methods: The exploratory study was conducted with 111 nursing faculty across the US. An online survey tool was created from the 22 outcomes in AACN’s 2008 BSN Essentials Standard IX - Generalist Practice. Participants were asked their perceptions regarding the ability of a student who uses a wheelchair to achieve these outcomes on a 6-point scale. For the case report, open-ended questions regarding educational experiences were answered in a virtual interview.
Results: Although some outcomes were complex statements, they were separated into predominantly cognitive, affective, or psychomotor domains for analysis. Faculty participant agreement that a student who uses a wheelchair could meet the 14 cognitive and affective domain outcomes was 88-100% but for psychomotor domain outcomes it was 66-90%. The case report provides insight into how students with physical disabilities can achieve psychomotor skills in the clinical and lab setting.
Conclusions: These faculty believed students with physical disability could meet cognitive and affective outcomes, but had reservations about psychomotor outcomes. This is not surprising based on the alignment of pre-licensure clinical nursing education with hospital-based bedside nursing. Since RNs who experience disability find meaningful practice, a paradigm shift is needed in nursing education to be inclusive of academically qualified students with physical disabilities. In clinical and lab settings, collaboration can allow these students to meet program outcomes with individualized accommodations.
Description
Many pre-licensure nursing programs integrate the essential functions of hospital nursing into admission requirements, creating a barrier for students with physical disabilities. Yet nurses who experience disability find employment opportunities. Can nursing education make clinical accommodations for academically prepared students? Results of survey research with faculty and a case report of a woman who uses a wheelchair and earned her undergraduate nursing degree provide evidence that it can.