Nurses with Visual Impairments

[Jnprenursing]

Hello everyone, I am a prenursing student finishing up my pre nursing course work. Anyway I wanted to ask if there are any visually impaired nurses out there who are caring for patients? My vision is 20/100 in left eye and 20/200 in right eye. But I can correct to 20/40 using telescopic lenses. I also wanted to add that if I can magnify something I can see it. I'm not color blind and I have a full field of vision. My only problem is distance. It's related to my albinism. The only challenge I think I'll have is IV's and blood draws. However I found a vien finder which helps me visualize viens so much better. I want to ask any visually impaired nurses out there how do you manage do put in IV's and perform blood draws?

Areas as of interest

psych nursing

med-surg nursing

I would highly appreciate any suggestions.

Thanks

[Persephone Paige, ADN]

I'm not a visually impaired nurse, but I worked with one. Her mother contracted Toxoplasmosis during pregnancy and she was legally blind. She was able to find work, but not in direct patient care. She did case management and did well. Our employer bought everything she needed ( larger computer screen ), etc... and accommodated her. I think the employer is the one who must accommodate, but I don't think the patient is required to. She still had patient contact, interviewed and took histories, etc... But she did not do skills. Good luck, I wish you well.

[Jnprenursing]

I'm not a visually impaired nurse, but I worked with one. Her mother contracted Toxoplasmosis during pregnancy and she was legally blind. She was able to find work, but not in direct patient care. She did case management and did well. Our employer bought everything she needed ( larger computer screen ), etc... and accommodated her. I think the employer is the one who must accommodate, but I don't think the patient is required to. She still had patient contact, interviewed and took histories, etc... But she did not do skills. Good luck, I wish you well.

thank you so much for the reply I think I would be better off pursing something else more along the lines of physical therapy or orthopedic technology. I appreciate the input.

[lumbarpain, ADN, RN]

I have been recently diagnosed with a rare form of exfoliative Glaucoma..which is hereditary and it has affected my optic nerve...this all happened very fast and I intensely recommend that any nurse here who has any one in their family with it..get YOUR Vision checked NOW....on top of the glaucoma is a cataract which was why I thought my vision was getting worse..so I headed to the eye doctor again..(this was almost 3 years after the cataract was diagnosed..but the first eye doctor said I had no glaucoma....NOW I have it....I thought stress was making my eye more blurry and I blamed the cataract all the while..but it turned out bad.....since then.....I have seen a regular eye doctor who found the glaucoma which I literally went into shock from....he gave me a excellent exam....then he recommended seeing a glaucoma specialist...I didn't really care for this doctor..wasn't personable and I felt like he was turning me off to my questions...THEN he sends me to a retinologist cause he thought he saw something going on with my retina...so this has become a big deal in the past 2 months.since then..I am on eye drops..3 different types to curb the pressure in my eye which has gone up to a big 51....I am surprised the eyeball doesn't explode Thank God.....but I have had side effects galore which are very unpleasant for a person who hasn't taken hard medications since the 90s...so this is psetting me greatly......my eyesight in a nutshell is pretty annoying....this exfoliation is kind of like a sliver of gray in the corner of my lens....its weird....it puts a dark gray curtain over half of my eyesight.....glare is bad....and doing my job is bad....I had asked the doctor to give me a note to excuse myself from floor work in hoping my DON would give me some type of office work to do....but she said to me....well.., what do you want me to do for you? at that point of the conversation..I knew there was nothing she would offer me cause I am NOT one of her favorites even though she complimented me on being a strong nurse.. I am having trouble with drawing up insulin and seeing the lines...pouring medication I have spilled a lot...and my perception is bad to the point where I have run into doorway walls with my med cart. I have told the doctors this and my DON and no one is giving me any type of direction......Its very scarey at my age now and living in a different state than my own is even more scarey...even though I have been living IN Virginia over 5 years now...its still a big void of nothing to me..and the help isn't there . I asked my glaucoma doctor if I can go on medical disability...cause I am having trouble driving also ..I drive to work. he says this....only way you can collect medic al disability is if you are a pilot or drive for a living like a truck driver.....at that instant I think I was in shock...so ..in a nutshell..its ok if I make a medication mistake...or accidentally overdose a patient, give too much or too little insulin... that's quite ok....does this make any sense to anyone? I even took myself off some days while the state was there at my facility so I wouldn't be surveyed by them and make a mistake being overly nervous and worrying about my eyesight...

...I don't want to lose my license...I am plain scared right now.. If anyone out there knows of any resources for nurses with severe visual impairment, please answer this post...I would be most grateful...