Student nurses with disabilities

KyRNðŸ˜‰ · Mar 17, 2016

I am curious if there are any nurses/student nurses with memory impairements/cognitive deficits. I understand that you have to have good memory/cognition to get through nursing school and practice, but is there anybody who has done it with disabilities, and if yes any strategies/compensatory technicues? Thank you

There are a lot of successful nurses with a cognitive disability; don't be discouraged by the responses. As to coping strategies, it would depend on what areas you specifically have difficulties with.

explorereb96, ADN, BSN · Mar 17, 2016

Explorer - I think you have a not accurate picture about home care nursing.
Nowadays patients at home who receive home care are pretty sick. They get discharged with a variety of problems, drains, and so on and forth. While you have only one patient at a time you are by yourself and you have to have very good assessment, teaching , and critical thinking skills.
I have stepped into houses with very challenging situations, which are more and more the norm.
Plus, home care is not a good fit for a new graduate because you have to have a variety of skills including very good assessment skills. Most nurses attain those skills in some form of facility - hospital, long term or acute long term before they are comfortable enough to go into home care.
Home care is not the low down place for people who have cognitive impairment.
OP - have you explored other options in health care or related fields?

I have been doing Pediatric Home Care with Vents, Trachs, since 1994....I am not unaware of the need for good assessment skills and the like. However, being in this field for so long, I know there are plenty of uncomplicated cases that need a good nurse. There are many out there that do not even realize that they have a cognitive deficit. It sounds like the OP at least knows her limits.

explorereb96, ADN, BSN · Mar 17, 2016

It cracks me up when people refer to home care as if it were nothing more than baby sitting. I worked home care for several years; it was hard work, and the patients were sick. The stress of having to see seven or eight people with complex medical issues in a day was unbelievable. You had to be very detail oriented, very organized, to work in home care.

I did not minimize home care and call it baby sitting. I know it is hard work because I am also a home care nurse. However, I will say this. There is one element that you have an advantage in when doing home care. Most of the time it is TIME. You are not juggling 5-8 patients at one time. Yes, you have to be organized and detail oriented. But you have TIME to do that.... I love (and loved) everyone of my homecare cases. When I started Peds Home Care I did not have a lick of Peds experience. I went part time at the hospital ICU/CCU (was burning out). I went to Home Care for the change of pace. At that time there were not many nurses willing to do Peds trach/vent home care. Heck, at that time we didn't even have the portable vents. They were big monstrosities that sat in a wagon or roll cart for portability. There was extensive orientation and the parents could not bring their child home without extensive training (nurses call out and they never have 24 hour...most was 16 hours).... my point is, yes there are RT's that handle the vents in the hospital... you learn much in home care that you have absolutely nothing to do with in the hospital.

KyRNðŸ˜‰ · Mar 17, 2016

There are many out there that do not even realize that they have a cognitive deficit. It sounds like the OP at least knows her limits.

Exactly. Cognitive deficit does not automatically = an incompetent nurse. There are amazing nurses out there who adapted and learned how to cope with their weaknesses. And implying that home care is the only viable option for someone with, *gasp* a cognitive deficit, is insulting to both home care and those with an impairment.

LadyFree28, BSN, LPN, RN · Mar 17, 2016

I don't the the OP is ever coming back to explain their "cognitive deficit" :down:

KyRNðŸ˜‰ · Mar 17, 2016

Probably not. I just wanted to speak up because HELLO, there's a least one nurse on the floor with a cognitive deficit. Some of the people who declared that those with memory/cognition impairments should not be nurses could possibly have a cognition deficit themselves. Just throwing that out there.

NurseNHowell · Mar 20, 2016

I've been a LVN for over a decade, worked for years before that as a CNA, currently am a RN student. I have SLE/RA/ME and I have always had ADD/ADHD issues as well as OCD. I would be a nurse that is considered disabled and has memory/cognitive issues. I'm an amazing nurse and while I do struggle in school, I am passing and in my final semester. I find SimpleNursing to be extremely helpful.

Its disheartening to read so many nurses bash disabled and state they aren't appropriate to be nurses. I work primarily in Case Management and Wound Care since being on the floor long term is not a fit for me due to my obvious future physical limitations. I currently also work in Sub-Acute on the floor at night since it is slower paced. There are places in nursing for everyone no matter their disability. I actually have the joy of knowing a nurse who lost 90% of her eye sight and she still works but in a field that suits her.

Nurses should never knock each other down especially over a disability.

Nurses should have empathy and compassion which some here seem to be lacking, so maybe some of you shouldn't be in the field if you truly believe your own opinions about the needed personal requirements for this career field.

NurseNHowell · Mar 20, 2016

No, really. It's not. Taking exams in nursing school doesn't hold a candle to the challenge of real-time, thinking on your feet emergencies. In the middle of a cardiac arrest, the patient will not be making "accommodations" for his nurse to have an extra hour to begin CPR.

Um yeah I'm a LVN and currently in the RN program. Both programs I had accommodations but yet I have never needed one on the floor. I have worked as a CNA, EMT, LVN, Case Manager, and am a WOCN. I have worked from home health, Skilled Nursing, Sub-Acute, L&D, ER, Med/Surg, Tele, on-call for an OB and many more areas do to my always carrying more than one job and working for registries after I had my baby.

Math I am given accommodations that I can do it on grid/lined paper and am allowed to not do my math problems on the computer. I have mild dyslexia and flipping between a solid blank white paper to a computer screen repeatedly all while trying to read 1 problem out of 30 from the computer to copy it onto the paper is where I have a problem. With all of the numbers from a list of problems I get my problems mixed up and will copy it down wrong. A paper test, being allowed a white lined or grid paper and I ace that math test. On the computer and without some sort of structured paper, I struggle.

So please tell me at what point in nursing you've ever been given 30 math problems with letters and numbers then told to find the answer for each in a limited time?

Oh thats right, NEVER, because school is not identical to working as a nurse on the floor. Oh and because we aren't doing advanced algebra on the nursing floor!!!

I can do most math problems in my head if I am solely looking at one isolated math problem.

Oh lets go into my accommodations for a note taker and being provided the powerpoints ahead of class. With my RA/SLE it is hard for me to pay attention while keeping up with writing the notes. So yes I get the power points ahead of class and I take notes while I do the assigned reading so when I get to class I only have to jot down minimal amount of notes and can give 100% of my focus on what the instructor is saying. If I am not provided the powerpoint then I am given a notetaker so that I can pay full attention and not stress about keeping up with notes since I know after class I can go back over and fill in what I couldn't keep up with.

So please tell me where in the nursing career I will be expected to follow along and copy 300+ pages of powerpoint slides while also copying down notes on each slide for 8+ hours a day?

Oh thats right, NEVER!!!!

I even have worked with 30+ patients and paper charting but still have never been required to do what I would have been required in nursing school for theory notes.

Please tell me how needing accommodations disqualifies me from being a competent and more than capable nurse even though I've already been one for over 10 years. Please do because I would love to hear it. You appear to be lacking an open mind but instead have yours filled with judgment and discrimination. There is more than enough room in nursing for disabled nurses in areas that are suited to their limitations.

jifferte, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 20, 2016

I am sorry for what I am about to say, but quite honestly not everyone can be, nor should they be a nurse. Being a competent, conscientious nurse requires that the individual be able to

assess, disseminate and apply information critical to a patient's care quickly and accurately. Nurses are caring, yes- but they also must be able to think critically, constantly assessing, intervening, and evaluating the patient so as to provide the best care.

Individuals who are cognitively impaired, or who otherwise cannot think critically in a quick and efficient manner should not be nurses. I know this will draw ire and it's not popular, but as a practicing nurse for 20 years and as a nursing instructor, it is how I honestly feel.

NurseNHowell · Mar 20, 2016

I am sorry for what I am about to say, but quite honestly not everyone can be, nor should they be a nurse. Being a competent, conscientious nurse requires that the individual be able to
assess, disseminate and apply information critical to a patient's care quickly and accurately. Nurses are caring, yes- but they also must be able to think critically, constantly assessing, intervening, and evaluating the patient so as to provide the best care.
Individuals who are cognitively impaired, or who otherwise cannot think critically in a quick and efficient manner should not be nurses. I know this will draw ire and it's not popular, but as a practicing nurse for 20 years and as a nursing instructor, it is how I honestly feel.

i am not entirely sure you actually know or comprehend what all falls into the category of "cognitive impairment."

cognitive disability

cognitive

Disorder

learning

So having ADD or ADHD you truly feel a person would be incapable of having quick assessment and critical thinking? You actually think having dyslexia makes a person incapable of being an excellent nurse? It is extremely sad to hear you are a nursing instructor and either you don't understand the huge group of things that fall into cognitive impairment or you have a discrimination against millions of people in the medical/healthcare/nursing field. Heck there are even military soldiers who are in combat with the same conditions, so they are fully capable of using their critical thinking in first hand combat protecting lives(without medications) but they wouldn't be worthy or capable enough to care for someone? I work with probably about 10 doctors who do ICU/NICU/ER that have a cognitive impairment such as I do. Even if some cognitive impairment nurses weren't fully able to work in a critical care setting then why should they be disqualified from working in a non-critical care setting such as MDS, CM, UR, or the hundreds of other positions that don't require critical care and fast paced setting?

It's disheartening to come to the realization that in this day and age we still clearly need the American with Disabilities Act. Especially seeing it come from someone who is possibly an instructor to those that need a guiding hand into an appropriate area of nursing that suits their skills and abilities.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2016

There are places in nursing for everyone no matter their disability.

While I think people would be surprised to find that there are many nurses who do have disabilities which they have managed to overcome or for which they are able to compensate, saying that there is no disability which could prevent someone from being a nurse is an overstatement and is another myth we read about here. Not everyone is suited to be a nurse. It's a fact that many people who long to be nurses are unable to get into nursing schools, unable to finish the course once started, or are unable to do it in actual practice once they get into the field.

Nursing is not possible for everyone "no matter the disability." Each person who wants to be a nurse in spite of a disability needs to approach it from their own unique perspective. Many can figure out ways to work around these disabilities. Not everyone can.

jifferte, BSN, MSN, RN · Mar 20, 2016

I am fully aware of the definition, although I am inferring that you are personalizing this thread.

Basic cognitive abilities are measured by attention and concentration, executive function, information processing speed, language, visuospatial skills, psychomotor ability, learning, and memory (Jansen, Miaskowski, Dodd, Dowling, & Kramer, 2005). Cognitive impairment, then, is defined as a decline in function of one or many of these domains.

An individual who experiences an impairment in executive thinking, judgement, processing, and language will not only have a difficult time coping with the demands of being a nurse, they may be a liability. Not sure when your rebuttal turned from good evidence into a soapbox but there can be a tremendous disparity in cognitive functioning, from relatively mild learning disabilities to severe MRDD. I think you know what we're discussing here, and it isn't someone with well controlled ADHD or dyslexia.

The question was posited in a previous post as to if you would want a nurse with a cognitive impairment (I'm assuming significant enough to impact memory) taking care of a loved one and my answer is still the same- no. And I stand by what I stated- "not everyone should be a nurse".