Nursing School with a Disability

[NightOwlGirl]

Any other nursing students with diagnosed disabilities & needs requiring accommodation under the A.D.A.?

Was your school helpful or was the process of getting accommodation difficult?

I am being diagnosed with an "invisible disability" (circadian rhythm disorder, delayed sleep phase type) & will be attempting to work with my program on ways of accommodating my documented needs (all classes/clinical rotations must begin after 12pm).

Hopefully they can work around my medical condition, but I am truly frightened they won't, especially regarding the clinical times (I need a 2-10 pm shift & they currently only offer 6am-2pm). They would need to have an available instructor, a hospital willing to take me during those hours, as well as being alright with my going through rotations apart from the cohort.

The university could also technically claim my requests for accommodation cause the program "undue hardship", leaving me the choice of A) dropping out or B) pursuing legal action in a discrimination suit.

Sigh. Why can't things ever be easy?

Anyone else successfully navigate nursing school with a medical disability? I need inspiration & good vibes!! :)

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

The school only has to make 'reasonable accommodation'. The OP admits that this would require an entire re-arrange of an existing program. IMHO- this is not 'reasonable'.

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Pepperdine University has a decent explanation of reasonable accommodations on their website, What is a reasonable Accommodation? | Student Information | Disability Services Office | Pepperdine University

In relation to rescheduling of a class: "A request from a student with a disability to have the institution reschedule the offering of a needed class to dovetail with the student’s transportation arrangements (in other words, offering the class during daytime hours instead of in the evening) is not reasonable (but a request for priority scheduling for the student with a disability to assure placement in the one offering of that class that meets during the day is reasonable)"

In other words, it is unreasonable for you to ask them to offer clinical rotations in the evening just for you, but a reasonable accommodation would be, for example, if there are evening and day clinical courses to allow you priority scheduling so that you can access the class with evening/afternoon clinical courses. The request to create clinical courses for a later class time to accommodate your perceived needs would likely not be considered a reasonable accommodation.

[Piglet08]

I'm glad you don't want to pursue legal action. I hope by that you don't mean, "but I will if I don't get what I'm asking for", because you'd most likely spend a LOT of money and wind up with the same result, plus the bills.

I hope you find someplace that can accommodate you.

[NightOwlGirl]

The friend who seriously suggested legal action used it to successfully to get a position at the State Department as a Foreign Service officer after they initially denied her application due to her gastrointestinal disease. She never actually filed a lawsuit under ADA, but became a big advocate of at least keeping the option of it in the mix, for better or worse.

The effects of DSPS on my academic/professional functionality have been medically documented, which hopefully raises the need for accommodation from "perceived" to verified or actual, but of course the final decisions are up to department administrators. Honestly, I expect to get the class schedule changes, but not the clinical ones.

I am actively preparing to find another program or another career, if worse comes to worse. I know nursing is a very compatible occupation for someone with my condition, given the perennial need to fill second/third shift positions, but I need to survive school first. :)

[Brannray]

I was diagnosed with MS at the age of 18, so I have been battling with that while in school. There are days that I don't think I can go, but my daughter *my inspiration* helps me to go on! So, when you don't think you can go on, just remember the reason your doing it, and if you need someone to talk to *or vent to* just message me!

[Melissa0181]

My nursing school offered morning and evening classes. Due to work I was always in the evening classes with weekend clinicals so my schedule usually involved theory classes from 5p to 9p several days a week and clinicals for 3p to 11p on either Saturdays or Sundays. Perhaps look at other nursing schools in your area to see if any have evening classes already in place. I wish you the best of luck.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

If the school only offers 6A-2P clinicals, it is not "reasonable" to expect them to create a 2P-10P rotation for you and they don't have to make that accomodation. People misunderstand the ADA a lot... they cannot discriminate against you because of your disability when it comes to accepting you into the program but the accomodations have to be reasonable and you have to be able to do the work. I had this conversation with someone who I knew casually once... she was working in a school but was unable to do the work that they gave her because of a cognitive disability due to a chromosomal deletion. She thought that this meant that they couldn't fire her because she had a "disability". BUT, she couldn't do the job so indeed they could and- I believe- did fire her.

I'll be blunt... there's NO WAY someone who required only afternoon/evening classes and clinicals would have been accomodated in my nursing program. I attended a traditional 4 year BSN program straight out of high school. The required nursing classes had ONE section per semester and the vast majority of classes started at 8 or 9am. In fact, in 4 years of nursing school I can only think of 4 classes that were held in the afternoon. The rest (and they were all mandatory and had to be taken in sequence) were only offered in the morning.

This particular school occasionally had evening clinicals but those were few and far between and not offered with every clinical rotation. I'm also kinda doubtful that nursing school is going to bend over backwards because of the reason that "I'll need to be awake for 24 hrs at a time if I do this." When I worked in the hospital, I typically had at least one day/week where I was awake for 24 hours.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

The school HAS to assist you with your ADA needs - but in regards to future workplace I dont know how detailed it gets.

I too have a similar fear when it comes to school and work working with me and my needs.

I have fibromyalgia and neuropathy and Im about to start recieving OxyCodone for pain management from a Clinic. I know they test for Oxy on 12 Panel urine drug test- and I will still provide all the detailed information explaining I am under Doctor's orders. BUT. I just cant but fear that they dont want to 'hire' a nurse who is taking very very strong opioid based medicaton.... kinda along the whole "nurse under the influence".

Anyone else taken medication and the school/work showing concern???

Not true. See all the previous posts about reasonable accomodations.

As far as your situation goes, it will depend on the hospital but I will tell you that there are hospitals out there that will not allow people to work while taking narcotics. My former employer was one of them. An NP in the Occupational Health office told me that point blank one day (I never took narcotics and was only seeing her because I was on lifting restrictions for my back). The hospitals' policy was "You cannot work if you are taking narcotics." It didn't matter if you had a valid prescription or not, you were not allowed to work while taking them.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

I don't see this as the schools "technically claiming an undue hardship"; I think it's a very valid reason for denying your entry.

It can be a masterful feat just to schedule enough instructors at enough clinical sites with the right amount of students to cover each semester's material. Creating a specialized time/place/class for you (and GUARANTEEING that for EVERY semester) isn't feasible. Then, too, you would have regular classes and labs--have you done pre-req classes yet?--that absolutely do NOT have the ability to create a new class schedule just for your consideration.

I would expect legal action to fail for the very reasons stated above.

I'm sorry, but I don't see this happening for you.

[cally527, RN]

The effects of DSPS on my academic/professional functionality have been medically documented, which hopefully raises the need for accommodation from "perceived" to verified or actual, but of course the final decisions are up to department administrators. Honestly, I expect to get the class schedule changes, but not the clinical ones.

I am actively preparing to find another program or another career, if worse comes to worse. I know nursing is a very compatible occupation for someone with my condition, given the perennial need to fill second/third shift positions, but I need to survive school first. :)

I had to look up DSPS because I had no idea what it was. Honestly...... I have had the same problem since I was 14 or 15. I have been fired from jobs for being late because of it. However, since I just learned of it this evening, I am not diagnosed. So, I have always just dealt with it.

Currently I usually fall asleep between 2 and 4 am and wake up around 11 am. If I need to be up earlier for an appointment or something, I set 2 very loud and obnoxious alarms for at least an hour BEFORE I need to actually be awake because it takes me a very long time to wake up that early. I have tried to "reset" my internal clock by taking sleeping pills to fall asleep earlier and I can usually get onto a pretty normal schedule. But I still have trouble waking up before 10am and my body slowly circles back around to my "normal" sleep schedule (even with the help of the sleep aid). I have actually taken sleeping pills and still not fallen asleep before. In the past I have also stayed up for 24+ hours in order to make sure I do not miss early morning meetings or appointments. It sucks and it only helps for a short period, but I do it when necessary. The part that sucks about staying up is that I am not able to fall asleep any earlier. So for example I wake up at 11 am on Monday. On tuesday morning I have a meeting at 8am. So I never actually go to bed. I stay awake and go to my meeting. I then go about my day. By 2pm on tuesday I am so exhausted I can barely speak coherently but I can't fall asleep. I will end up falling asleep around midnight at the absolute earliest.

Sadly, I do not feel that any school is going to go beyond the required concessions in order to accommodate your disability. I also don't feel that they should go above what the law requires. In order to reschedule clinical for you they would need to jump through some serious hoops. I don't really think that threatening the school with a lawsuit will do you any good either. I think that you should see what they can do to accommodate you. They will most likely be able to make concessions for your class and lab times. Then(this comment is not meant to be disrespectful) I think that you need to just suck it up and deal with the lab time. Labs are usually only 1 or 2x per week and you have said yourself that it is possible for you to get up early for appointments etc. I think that if you really want to be a nurse, you will make the clinical work out somehow, which is what I will be doing.

Good luck to you with this. I am interested to see how it turns out for you.

[SHGR, MSN, RN, CNS]

I really do hope you are able to fulfill your goal to become an RN. We are needed on every shift and most people can't do night shift successfully. Someone with a true night schedule, who can be awake, alert, and ready for action all night every night would be a blessing to have on staff at any hospital.

[Stephalump]

I really do hope you are able to fulfill your goal to become an RN. We are needed on every shift and most people can't do night shift successfully. Someone with a true night schedule, who can be awake, alert, and ready for action all night every night would be a blessing to have on staff at any hospital.

Very true! Being a night owl could be a great benefit in the long run.

I have adrenal insufficiency, and keeping a pretty strict sleep/wake schedule is really important to keep me from getting sick. While I'd love to work nights (my crappy cortisol production means I'm naturally wide awake at midnight and dead to the world during normal waking hours), I absolutely could not flip to days when I'm off and I think my family life would suffer too much.