Advancing Education with a Learning Disability?

[SunnyPupRN]

i'm hoping to find someone else who has walked in these shoes- i want to earn the bsn, but of course statistics is a requirement and i'm dx'd with dyscalculia, a math processing disability. for my rn i was allowed to substitute a chem course as an accomodation to the disability. the bsn programs i'm investigating don't seem to be quite as willing or interested in helping me plan for success in statistics and i'm at a loss as to how to proceed. i realize this disability is not well heard of, and maybe that is the reason the colleges aren't being very helpful, but the ada act is law and requires individual assessment and accomodations.

i've never taken class online...how does that work? how would accomodations be made for an online class? would it be better to try to take the class at a brick and mortar college nearby and seek face to face help/accomodations and then transfer credits? i'm terribly anxious about numbers and interpreting them, and i do not want to fail.

my last job i mentioned my dyscalculia to another nurse and shortly thereafter i was forced to resign. no concrete reason was given, and i am positive it was because of the dyscalculia disability. (the news made it to my supervisor who met with me and i explained i'm very careful and always double check my doseages with another nurse, but within a few weeks i was given a choice to resign or be fired). so i'm very nervous about this problem inhibiting my future.

[CuriousMe]

Defining characteristics of a BSN education include the abilty to assist with research and to interpret & apply research findings. So statistics is a required part of the curriculum. Moving forward into grad school, even more statistics is required - which requires a much more in-depth understanding of the mathmatics principles and how to apply them.

I take issue with the PP who said that statistics is not really math. It certainly is. You will need to understand and apply fairly complex formulae. If you are unable to understand all the underlying principles and what each formula does, you're not really learning statistics, you are only memorizing. Calculators are great, but it will require judgement to determine which formulae to use, how to set it up, and how to interpret results.

I would also strongly advise against on-line math classes for anyone with this problem because they do not provide sufficient interaction. There is no substitute for face-to-face interaction with a skilled instructor who knows many different ways to communicate the same information so that everyone 'gets it'. They are more than willing to go the extra mile for any motivated and interested student.

From the perspective of someone with dyscalculia, Stat's wasn't really math to me. I'm great with mathematical concepts, it's arithmetic I can't do (seriously, I'm a senior in my BS nursing program with a great GPA, pursuing a minor in chem and I still don't know my multiplication factors--Oh and yes, I always carry a small calculator with me for med calc as well). In Stat's I was able to let the calculator do the arithmetic, and just focus on what we were really doing. If I had to do it long hand (ie without my whiz bang calculator that was programmed with all the statistical functions), I would have gotten so lost in the arithmetic that I could have never absorbed what it was we were doing.

I did take it face-to-face, with a phenomenal Professor and got an A in it. However, I did my developmental math (I was no where near college math when I went back to school) all online and it was the best thing I could have done. It really gave me the chance to move through the stuff I knew and do the parts I didn't get over and over and over. For me, algebra (figuring out how to solve the problems) is more about practice then it is about instruction (but yes, we were allowed to use calculators for those courses as well).

[SummitRN, BSN, RN]

If you can do drug calcs and chemistry, you will be able to do statistics. Intro to stats is mostly conceptual and some calculator calculations. Calculators are a perfectly reasonable accommodation. What other accommodations would you be seeking?