For Cerebral Palsy awareness month: We celebrate Carla Pease, a Nurse Practitioner with CP!

Carla Pease, RN, MS, Nurse Practitioner

Carla Pease was born with cerebral palsy. She finished her LPN certificate and then finished an RN program. Carla continued on to get her masters in nursing. 

She is now a board-certified adult-geriatric nurse practitioner. Carla lives in North Dakota and has been practicing as a nurse practitioner for 3 years. She states, “The only disability is ignorance. Cerebral Palsy is not my stumbling block, it is my stepping stone.”

Bravo Carla!!!

Donna

New report: Access, Inclusion and Action in Medical Education

In order to capture the state of disability in medical education, the AAMC and the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine partnered to publish a report based on the lived experiences of learners with disabilities. The report identifies major themes from interviews with 47 students, residents and physicians with disabilities.

Coauthored by Lisa Meeks, PhD and Neera Jain, MS, CRC, the report describes best practices that can promote and foster a positive culture around disability.

Bravo and thanks to Lisa and Neera!

Donna 

https://news.aamc.org/press-releases/article/doctors_disability_report_03132018/

 https://members.aamc.org/eweb/upload/Accessibility,%20Inclusion,%20and%20Action%20in%20Medical%20Education--Lived%20Experiences%20of%20Learners%20and%20Physicians%20With%20Disabilities.pdf 

Sian Preddy: First profoundly deaf midwife in Wales!

Sian Preddy

 In an interview reported by the BBC, Sian was four years old when she was first diagnosed as deaf.

"My mother cried and cried when told the news. She had known there was something wrong with me but was constantly brushed off by doctors as an overly anxious mother; she was so relieved to finally have a diagnosis."

"After that, I was given a hearing aid but just ripped it off. Nothing helped. I kept getting ear infections and by the age of 14 was classed as profoundly deaf."

"Because I had spent so much time in hospital as a child, I was interested in the medical world and wanted to be a nurse."

After having two children and a cochlear implant, Sian applied for midwifery training and "never looked back". So far, she has completed two years at the University of South Wales.

Read more of the story at http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-43376926.

Cheers and congratulations to Sian!!!   

Donna 

P.S. Sian has been nominated for Disability Wales' #IAmEmbolden awards to honour women for breaking down barriers and empowering others.

Think she will win???

Nursing students with disabilities: Is your campus assault prevention program inclusive?

A study, conducted by the National Council on Disability, a federal agency, suggests that undergraduates with a disability are more likely to be sexually assaulted than are their peers without a disability, and that colleges don’t know how to support them.

About 31.6 percent of female undergraduates with a disability reported having been sexually assaulted, compared with 18.4 percent of undergraduate women without a disability, the study found.

“Sexual assault has become a topic of concern on campuses and with the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements, but seldom has the conversation included consideration of the needs of college students with disabilities,” said Wendy Harbour, a member of the council and director of the National Center for College Students With Disabilities, in a news release.

The study, described in a report titled “Not on the Radar: Sexual Assault of College Students With Disabilities,” is the first federally funded examination of how the needs of sexual-assault victims with disabilities are treated in colleges’ policies and procedures.

“Campus assault prevention and education programs are not inclusive of students with disabilities,” the report says, “and college staff lack awareness that such programs should be accessible to students with disabilities, and staff are not trained in disability accommodations.”

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Students-With-Disabilities-Are/242400

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love to read your thoughts, experiences or suggestions.

With thanks,

Donna

Access to RN-BSN programs for nurses who use wheelchairs

A nurse who uses a power wheelchair shared the following story:

I was recently accepted into an RN to BSN program. I have an incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) from an accident. I use a power wheelchair, drive a modified van and do not require any accommodations for writing, computer or telephone use. I am also Minimum Data Set (MDS) certified.

I was officially accepted into the nursing program. The program never asked about my disability or shared any technical standards.

I attended the first week of classes and was told, "you can't be a nurse because you don't meet the college's technical standards." There is a small component of the program that includes a clinical experience and they said I wouldn't be able to participate as, "I must be able to ambulate without any assistive device".

So many questions to ask about this situation?????

You "can't be a nurse". She is a nurse!!!!!

Isn't this screaming discrimination?

What about Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and reasonable accommodation?

The clinical portion of an RN-BSN program is typically in a community setting...so accommodation would certainly be possible.

What about totally online RN-BSN programs?

What would you advise this nurse to do?

With thanks in advance!

Donna

Can I become a nurse with my lower arm missing?

Angelica Baeza, SN

Recently, I received the following email from a nursing student.

Good afternoon.

Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Angelica Baeza and I'm a new Nursing 1 student currently attending Orange County Community College in Newburgh, NY. I was born without the lower portion of my left arm. It's never interfered in any given task, but now as I go into the second week of Nursing 1, the questions arises, "Can I actually become a nurse?" Everything in my heart and soul is telling me "yes" but obviously I'm scared and nervous. I only wish to succeed and master all the skills necessary to achieve my goals!

Angelica also sent me the following videos of "Donning and removal of PPE". In one video she is practicing skills at home and in another one she is practicing in the car while her girls are in math tutoring!

Please take a look at this videos. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hurIPTO3sTY&feature=youtu.be

https://youtu.be/TOgDUgkm3wA

In my view.....she's got this one!!!!!!!!

Love to read your thoughts.

With thanks,

Donna

Nurses who are d/Deaf: Breaking boundaries and changing perceptions

Helen Cherry

The Royal College of Nursing's magazine reported on the experiences of nurses
 in the United Kingdom who are d/deaf. Helen Cherry was included in the article. 

In 1977, Helen Cherry became one of the first deaf people to begin nurse training. Helen has severe to profound deafness, meaning that she has little to no hearing without the benefit of hearing aids.... 
Helen's career flourished and in the late 80s she followed a lifelong dream to travel, moving overseas to work firstly in Australia and then India in early HIV/AIDS projects. One of the many roles she undertook was heading up a team in Tasmania that was tracing haemophiliacs who had unknowingly contracted HIV through infected blood. She went on to present a paper on integrated patient care between Volunteer HIV/AIDS services and Royal District Nurses services at the 4th international AIDS conference in Canberra.

“Being deaf didn't stop me from my ambition to work overseas and experience more of the world. I hope my experiences will encourage other D/deaf nurses to realise what they can achieve”.

Helen is currently working in education, co-facilitating sessions in health and social care at London Southbank University’s innovative People’s Academy. “I think people with diverse disabilities bring a wealth of their own experience to nursing”.

Jackie Wan who is a Deaf community nurse who works within the Deaf Adult Community Team (DACT) at Springfield University Hospital, which provides inpatient and outpatient mental health services to D/deaf children and adults... 

In 2016, Jackie won the Best Deaf Role Model award for her work supporting D/deaf people and being a leading example of what D/deaf people can achieve.

Read more about Helen, Jackie and other d/deaf nurses who are breaking down boundaries and changing perceptions!

Bravo!!!

Donna

https://www.rcn.org.uk/magazines/bulletin/2017/december/breaking-boundaries