Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year.
We've started to get a number of student nurses who are being assessed as
dyslexic, especially since the University has established EIHMS - European
Institute of Health and Medical Sciences. This has meant that what used to
be just a department of nursing and midwifery has had the major addition of
diploma nurses, nurses in work updating professional qualifications in a
myriad of part-time patterns as well as full-time undergraduate degree and
postgraduate
courses.
As far as disability/SLD as a whole is concerned, the physical demands to be
a nurse mean that many conditions are simply screened out, so eg. someone
with MS simply would not be considered as fit to do the job. Having said
that, I hear that a student with one leg has been accepted on a course and
another nurse who has developed diabetes is still studying. I've no doubt
that as time goes on, nurses with back injury will start coming our way.
Consequently, I think it may well be that SLD will prove to be an even
greater proportion of students with special needs among nursing students
than it already is more generally. I would not be suprised to find that the
profession is much more used to considering the needs of patients with
special needs than staff.
The kind of issues which cause worry that we have come across are safety
ones, eg. a nurse misreading drug instructions. We have also come across
experienced nurses who have hidden unassessed SLD for years and are now
expected to upgrade qualifications. Academic study for them is traumatic.
However, they are employees and now covered by the DDA. It's a bit early to
know how all this will work out.
As far as study is concerned, academic staff have been asking for guidance.
Regards
Liz T.
At 11:17 22/12/97 GMT, you wrote:
>Dear All,
>
>Could anyone give me any information on how dyslexia is viewed in the
>Nursing world. I have tried to contact the many nursing bodies for
>information, but not one person will respond to my request. I do not
>want to go on an attack, but I have a nursing student who was
>recently diagnosed as dyslexic and is now concerned that this may
>affect her future career and would like reassurance that it would
>not. If any of you have any information I would be grateful.
>
>Thank you
>
>Gail Hine
>Disability Co-ordinator
>University of Portsmouth
>Tel No. 01705 843159
>E-mail [log in to unmask]
>
>
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