Published
Hi all.. Thanks for the warm welcome.. I am just doing a survey on how or if a person with a disability in your life inspired you to be a nurse. How did you incorporate it,other than your attitude toward people with a disability, into your practise as a nurse? How is it different? And the obvious showing compassion toward people with a disability .... I would live to hear from anyone
Thanks!
It didn't have much to do with me deciding to pursue nursing but I dated a mostly deaf guy with hearing aids for a bit. Though he definitely struggled to hear enough in some situations, he spoke three languages fluently and a few more passably. Knowing him made a good case for using the term "differently abled" rather than "disabled." After all, he learned languages better --by ear-- than most normal people. See people by their talents, not their flaws.
i grew up with a deaf cousin..he was my best friend growing up...i learned sign language along with him.
in school i was always friendly and compasionate toward MR individuals and the learning disabilty while others made fun of them...i stopped them....my husband has a brain injured sister and i love her to death....in the early 80s i received my AAS degree in early childhood minoring in special education for the preschoolers....many years later while i was in my 40s i became a LPN,now I am in my 2nd semester of RN school.....did all this help me decide to be a nurse?..perhaps yes,perhaps no. i just knew i always wanted to be one,my kids are grown and now it is my chance. i think growing up the way i did certainly helps me to be a more compasionate nurse...oh and did i mention...i work with medically frail MR and TBI individuals now...some are very contracted and distorted,but all i see is an individual,not their physical disabilities.....I am going through my psych rotation now and LOVE it!!!....a whole other ball of wax compared to what i am use to,but so very interesting!!
I didn't know anyone who'd had an amputation growing up, but was around illness my entire life.
My grandmother had a severe stroke secondary to a ruptured aneurysm about 5 years before I was born when she was 56 years old. She was severely debilitated, wheelchair bound, G-tube fed, in and out of nursing homes until she died when I was 11, etc. My cousin was born with an imperforate orifice and I saw my first colostomy when I was seven years old. Whether or not this led me to nursing, I don't know... maybe subconsciously it did.
Bebe09
2 Posts
Did you ever know anyone that was an amputee or had a physical disability growing up? How did that affect you as a nurse or in your practice? and can you give me any examples of how it was incorporated into your learning as a nurse?