Experiences of d/Deaf nurses in the United Kingdom

 

Deafness is a common disability in the UK. It affects one in three adults, and many nurses have hearing loss when they enter the profession or develop it during their career. A systematic approach to a narrative literature review was conducted, reviewing available articles about the experiences of d/Deaf nurses. This revealed that they may face many challenges in the workplace, such as discrimination, environmental challenges and barriers to communication.

 However, d/Deaf nurses may possess additional skills that make them an asset to the workplace, such as adaptability, lip-reading and empathy for patients with disabilities. Considering both the high prevalence of deafness and the shortage of NHS nurses, it is critical to support the recruitment and retention of d/Deaf nurses at the start of, and throughout, their career.

Read more at:

Tanner C (2026) D/deaf nurses’ workplace experiences, barriers and skills. Nursing Times; 122: 7.

The following links will take you to a pdf of the article along with  a guide for the article to be used with a journal club.

260720-d_Deaf-nurses-workplace-experiences-barriers-and-skills.pdf

Journal-club.docx

Cheers!

Donna

Significant wage gaps between nurses with and without disabilities found in the United States

 

"Health Affairs Scholar" published the results of a study of wage gaps between nurses with and without disabilities in the United States.

"This study analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2008-2023 American Community Survey (ACS) among working-age (20-65 years old) employed nurses. Nurses self-identified as Registered Nurses (RNs) or Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs): Nurse practitioners, Nurse anesthetists, and Nurse midwives. An individual was considered disabled if they answered yes to any of the 6 ACS disability questions (Appendix 1). Linear regressions estimated outcomes (logged annual and hourly wages and total hours worked annually) as a function of disability, adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, year, and state-by-metropolitan area fixed effects. We conducted subgroup analyses by occupation (RNs vs APRNs), age-group, and disability type. All models included robust standard errors and incorporated ACS survey weights and complex survey design."

"The analytic sample included 473 850 employed nurses, with 17 425 (weighted, 3.5%) reporting a disability. See Table S1 in Appendix 2 for sample characteristics. The most common disability types were mobility (23.9%) and hearing (22.1%) disabilities. Employed, working-age nurses with disabilities were older, on average, than those without disabilities (mean age: 48.6 vs 42.6, respectively). The top industries where nurses with and without disabilities worked were overall similar (ie, hospitals, outpatient care centers, and nursing facilities), though a smaller proportion of disabled nurses (55.1%) worked in hospitals than non-disabled nurses (63.7%)."

"In adjusted analyses, disabled nurses earned 12.2% lower annual wages (95% CI, −13.6 to −10.8; P < 0.001) and 7.4% lower hourly wages (95% CI, −8.3 to −6.5; P < 0.001), and worked 27 fewer hours annually than non-disabled nurses. Wage differences between nurses with and without disabilities remained significant after adjusting for total hours worked (Table 1). Models that additionally adjusted for industry (job location) showed similar estimates for primary outcomes (see Table S2 in Appendix 2)."

"Overall, these findings point to wide disability-based wage gaps within the largest U.S. healthcare workforce. As more nurses enter the workforce with disabilities or acquire them with age or the physical demands of the job,³ policy and organizational changes to foster disability-inclusive workplaces are essential to improve retention, equity, and patient care.^4"

Please visit:

Laurin Bixby, K Jane Muir, Michelle Kephart, Mihir Kakara, Wage gaps between US nurses with and without disabilities, Health Affairs Scholar, Volume 4, Issue 7, July 2026, qxag161, https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxag161

Wage gaps between US nurses with and without disabilities to read the complete article.

Cheers!

Donna

Care at Shriners Hospital enabled patient with cerebral palsy to become a NICU nurse

Vanessa was born at 28 weeks. She spent 154 days in the NICU after being diagnosed with a significant brain bleed. While she developed into a bright, fully functioning toddler, her body struggled to keep up.

“I didn’t take my first steps until I was two and a half,” Vanessa said.

That delay led to a referral to Shriners Children’s in 1998 when she was 2. There, she was diagnosed with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy affecting her lower extremities.

Despite the difficulties, Vanessa holds some of her best childhood memories from Shriners Children’s – swimming in the therapy pool, playing basketball with a visiting Sacramento Kings player and the overwhelming sense of support.

“Shriners Children’s made me feel happy even when I felt sorry for myself,” she said. “It is one of a kind, and it totally made me the nurse I am today.”

That nursing path was intentional. Though she once dreamed of being a surgeon, she realized nurses are the backbone of the hospital, providing the crucial face-to-face support for families. She and her now-wife moved to Arizona for nursing school, navigating their education through the COVID-19 pandemic, where Vanessa gained frontline experience as a certified nursing assistant in a COVID unit.

Today, she has achieved her dream job: working as a NICU nurse at a top-level hospital in the Pacific Northwest, caring for the most premature infants.

“I chose the NICU because prematurity is a top risk factor for developing a disability like CP,” Vanessa said. “Having been a NICU baby myself, and hearing what my mom went through as a single parent, I wanted to provide the same support and compassion for my patients that UC Davis and Shriners gave us.”

For her, the work is deeply personal and preventative.

“Reading my own old medical records, I see how far NICU medicine has come. Now, we’re on the frontline protecting these preemie babies. It’s a privilege and an honor.”

Read more about Vanessa at: 

https://www.shrinerschildrens.org/en/news-and-media/patient-stories/2026/02/vanessa-cerebral-palsy-care

Cheers!

Donna

Support for nursing faculty with disabilities and chronic illness is needed

 

Cross, Lisa PhD, RN, CNE, CRRN, CHPN; Coombs Delis, Pamela PhD, RN, CNE. Supporting Nurse Faculty Who Have Disability and Chronic Illness. Nurse Educator ():10.1097/NNE.0000000000002187, May 25, 2026. | DOI: 10.1097/NNE.0000000000002187 

Cheers!

Donna

Dionne DeMille RN, a profoundly deaf nurse, graduated with her DNP

Weber State University shared this story.        

"A former high school dropout, Dionne DeMille thought she’d never amount to anything. Now, set to graduate with her Doctor of Nursing Practice this Saturday at Weber State University, she wants to use her life and career experiences to open doors for current and future disabled healthcare professionals. 

“I love seeing anyone with a disability coming into healthcare. We absolutely need them,” she said. “They bring a perspective and a compassion that just surpasses the general population. We understand what it’s like to struggle.” 

"DeMille, 60, of Eagle Mountain, is profoundly deaf and works as a nursing instructor at Nightingale College, an online nursing school in Salt Lake City. At 6 years old, she was inspired to become a nurse after attending a vaccination clinic and being comforted by a nurse before getting her shots." 

“We lined up in this huge, long line and I remember being so terrified,” DeMille said. “Then I get up to the front of the line, and there’s a nurse. She got down on my level, started talking to me, and said, ‘Hey, you got this.’ I remember thinking, ‘I want to be like her someday.’”

"DeMille was diagnosed with severe hearing loss as a child and was raised oral, meaning she talked and lip read instead of using sign language. Because of her deafness, she was told a career path in nursing was out of reach". …

"For her doctorate-level project, DeMille created a program for nursing school faculty to advocate and expand access to students with disabilities. The program involves a liaison who will be a bridge between faculty and the university’s disability services coordinator, and a toolkit involving strategies, training programs, and examples of previous accommodations for disabled students."

“We found the biggest roadblock for schools of nursing and for faculty being resistant to bringing in students with disabilities is simply a lack of education,” she said. “Maybe they’ve never had somebody in a wheelchair say they want to be a nurse. It really doesn’t matter what that disability is, there are ways to overcome that, and there are ways to help you become a nurse.”

Read more at: 'Let's find what works for you': Deaf nursing graduate aims to expand opportunities

https://www.sigmanursing.org/member-stories/member-stories-detail/dionne-demille/

Cheers,

Donna

Ray’Mon Lewis, RN BSN, the only nurse who uses a wheelchair in Louisiana, inspires his patients to move forward

Maddie Kerth reported this story.

“Nursing called me, truly,” Lewis said. “That’s how I feel.”

"When it came time to apply for college, Lewis committed fully to Southern University’s nursing program. He excelled in his classes and built trust in his training."

"Surrounded by classmates and professors who supported him, he said he felt like part of a family. With each day that passed, he grew more certain that nursing was the only path for him."

“I didn’t have a Plan B,” he said.

"But with one semester left in Lewis’ senior year, everything changed."

He woke up in a hospital bed, heartbroken and confused.

“Took my eyes off the road for a quick second,” Lewis remembered."

"But that’s all it took. He says his car flipped five times."

"Doctors told Lewis the damage from his single-vehicle accident was severe. They said he was paralyzed from the chest down."

“I never looked down on a moment of being paralyzed,” Lewis said. “I was positive when they came in and told me about the situation, the diagnosis. It’s the card I’m dealt, so I accepted it.”

"Lewis turned to rehab, giving it his all, even though his dream of becoming a nurse suddenly appeared out of reach."

"He began the process of relearning the basics, reclaiming his independence inch by inch. And through it all, his Southern University family promised there’d be a spot for him whenever he was ready to come back."

“It definitely brightened up my spirits when I was in there,” Lewis said.

"Slowly, he got stronger. He made it outside. He learned to navigate life on wheels."

"And, six months later, he was back."

Read more at: We the people: Ochsner nurse inspires patients with his survival story

Cheers!

Donna

Introducing Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine, nurse scientist and disability justice scholar

 "Dr. Sabrina Ali Jamal-Eddine, PhD RN (she/her) is an Arab disabled queer woman, health humanities nurse scientist, disability justice scholar-activist, and spoken word poet. Dr. Jamal-Eddine completed her PhD in Nursing with a certificate in Disability Ethics at University of Illinois Chicago where her doctoral research explored the use of spoken word poetry as a form of critical narrative pedagogy to educate nursing students about disability, ableism, and disability justice. Dr. Jamal-Eddine's goal is to create transformative change within nursing education and practice through developing engaging decolonial pedagogic strategies, community-based interventions, and transformative policies rooted in the lived experiences of multiply marginalized disabled people. 

Dr. Jamal-Eddine simultaneously investigates the ways in which unjust systems of oppression manufacture disability, both domestically and transnationally. Her long-term goal is to found an applied public-humanities / community-engaged healthcare equity center in a university that confronts healthcare inequity, violence, and oppression and promotes liberation, humanization, and belongingness for all marginalized patients, students, and practitioners."

"Sabrina has performed a spoken word TEDxTalk on her experience with Xenophobia and Islamophobia. This can be found here: go.osu.edu/tedxsabrina"

https://www.sabrinajamaleddine.com/

https://nursehub.com/meet-dr-sabrina-ali-jamal-eddine-phd-rn/

Cheers!

Donna