Paraplegia and nursing

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I have a paraplegic friend who would like to study nursing. Will he be denied the opportunity to study you think? He is paralyzed from the waist down.

It's not impossible for your wheelchair using friend to graduate from nursing school -- these resources and success stories may help:

Wyoming Nurse Reporter Magazine (Spring 2008) -- issue on disabled nurses in the workplace, including a profile of paraplegic nurse Rose Rennel (PDF)

Daniel Savoie, first Canadian paraplegic to complete BSN (1991)

Nursing Students with Disabilities Change the Course -- Christine's Story

Nursing with the Hand You Are Given (2006): The ADA was supposed to provide equal access for people with disabilities. So why do so many nursing students with disabilities still face discrimination in the admissions process? (PDF)

Homework for Future Nursing Students with Disabilities

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I appreciate so much your posts. I have a disability also but it is invisible so I do not have to deal with the overt discrimination as the OP does. I do not ask for any accomidations when I work , although really it would make my life easier and not be too difficult. Sometimes people figure out something is up with me because of certain things I have learned to compensate and then I live in fear they are going to OUT me. I find nurses to be the least compassionate group of people that I have ever in my life encountered and perhaps that is why I have a bit of a negative take here. Moreover, I suspect that before healthcare became "corporate" the early years of nursing may have been more doable. Now its just a mess even for people with no problems.

OP have you looked into OTA or PTA? Occ therapy and physical therapy assistants can make the same as RNs especially if they get into management and have loads less stress and more job satisfaction. Since businesses make tons of money off rehab their jobs are also more secure and they are treated much better. Remember that for the most part nursing is part of the room charge and not a seperate charge. That mean snurses are and 'expense" and businesses are always trying to cut expenses. On the other had the rehab people are income generators. Sad to say, your place on the accounting spreadsheet has a lot to do with how you get treated.

I am admitted to an MSN program but thinking about trying to get into a PTA program instead. Yes it is sad that it may be more benficial to do another associates then to do a masters level program. But the more I am looking around the more I think it will be safer for me, especially given the "eat their young" environment. And dont let anyone tell you that its not like that. I have worked many differnt positions and never encountered anything close to the lack of compassion, respect and just pure lack of human decency than I have seen from SO many nurses. NOT ALL there are a lot of vey kind ones, but I think lots of them are working on bailing out of the toxic environment

I am still deciding what to do and am all over the place about it but would have NEVER taken this path if I understood the codependent and downright evil nature of so much of the workforce. This is a job LOADED with EXREMELY unhappy insecure people, many of which, LOVE to pick on the weakest one in the group like playground bullies. WIth the obviosu physical disability, guess who that is going to be at your workplace?

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It's not impossible for your wheelchair using friend to graduate from nursing school -- these resources and success stories may help...

WoW - I tried to find more articles but I wasn't able, that's great!!

I appreciate so much your posts. I have a disability also but it is invisible so I do not have to deal with the overt discrimination as the OP does.

Check the "nurses with disabilities" thread (if you want) to see if there are others with your same challenges, I have a relatively invisible one too.

Ironically after years of struggling to do nursing the field I am considering is OT!

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I wanted to leave a quick note, although this was posted sometime ago. I have paraplegia and use a wheelchair full-time. I also completed nursing school 8 months ago and am currently working as a nurse in an ER.

It is VERY possible to be a nurse even when you use a wheelchair, and yes a nurse in a hospital setting if you wish to do so.

It was very difficult to get into a nursing program because of preconceived notions as to what my abilities might be. I found a school that was willing to work with me and told me that although they were concerned, they saw my drive and willingness to adapt to achieve the same end goal in a method that I was able to do while maintaing safety and quality care for my patients. :)

Clinicals in school were not that difficult, the most difficult thing I ran into would be the negative attitudes of nurses that we were paired with, but after a few hours the ones that could be won over, were. I loved my clinicals and would not want to do anything else.

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I know a nurse who has no legs. He works full-time in a manual w/c and will work circles around any other nurse I've ever met. No it's not me but I've worked the floor with him and he is the most respected RN, everyone loves him. If someone wants to do something they should be allowed to go for it. People with disabilities know their limits better than any one. Discrimination against the disabled is widely practiced and widely accepted, as evidenced by some of the comments here, because, if you don't have a disability you cannot truly understand it. The first rule of nursing is empathy.

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Hello everyone,

wow this has been very interesting and my full day of seeing the counselor and medical doctor has really made me think and led me to this post.

to make a long story short I really have been thinking about wanting to be a surgeon. That seems to be the big picture that a nurse is not trained to do. I am a lot older now days and was revoked for several years. However now being able to return into nursing makes me want to do everything possible in healthcare including surgery. I would be in my 40’s if I could Go and finish But should I attempt now while I am able? What if I don’t and regret it for not trying. I tried nursing and made it through.
so Just to be able to perform surgery? I think it would be worth it but I do not think I could afford to do it. So I guess I should be happy being a nurse and go for np school.

being happy with that brought me to the above posts and I am very offended by some of these post. I would greatly assume a paralyzed person could go to nursing school and even be able to teach nursing at the least. If I was paralyzed I would be heartbroken if I had read some of the above post.

I do hope there is schools that allow disabilities and laws for students.

nursing is supposed to encompass all known hardships and downfalls.

i don’t really have anyone I can talk to except on here or with my doctor and mental health providers about certain things but I do want to explore learning further in nursing and following whatever the board requires. I think healthcare is very special.

i wish u all the best

p.s. So far I think every career I’ve come across has nursing in it some way or another. And I keep finding a lot of careers and things I cannot do because I don’t have credentials or knowledge. But I do think nursing is very impressive especially shots and iv administration

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I know an RN who lost both legs in an MC accident. He works as a full-time nurse in a large rehab facility and he is the most awesome nurse I've ever seen.

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