Experiences of students with disability requiring reasonable adjustments for an undergraduate nursing clinical placement

Abstract

Background: Students with disabilities are traditionally under-represented in higher education and are more likely to have limited access to learning opportunities. In particular, to vocational courses requiring field or clinical placements. Undertaking clinical placement is a challenge for all undergraduate nursing students. To have a disability and reasonable adjustments is a further complexity to the completion of their compulsory clinical placement. Understanding the challenges involved will enable the development of student support strategies to foster an inclusive and supportive clinical learning environment. This is the first Australian study to date that has sought to understand the experiences of undergraduate nursing students with disability requiring reasonable adjustments for clinical placement. Study aim: The study aims to explore and understand the experiences of students with disability requiring reasonable adjustments for an undergraduate nursing clinical placement. Method: A qualitative exploratory design was chosen for this study. Six undergraduate nursing students with disability participated with face-to-face interviews. Thematic analysis informed by Braun and Clarke was undertaken on each of the transcribed interviews. Findings: The data revealed four major themes: being supported, self-empowering strategies, barriers experienced on clinical placement and wanting to belong. These four themes reflect the students’ experiences with their reasonable adjustments from their time of pre-clinical preparation to clinical placement completion. Discussion: This research has provided an understanding pertaining to the nursing students’ experiences with receiving disability support and experiences with reasonable adjustments on clinical placement. This study has highlighted the importance of self-empowerment, belongingness and support to the success of clinical placement for nursing students with disability and reasonable adjustments. The findings in this study also identified that the participants felt supported with the implementation of their academic integration plan and reasonable adjustments with student disability services on university campus. However, there were some barriers to the implementation of their reasonable adjustments on clinical placement. Demonstrating that each student had distinctive requirements and unique experiences, and thus, a ‘one model fits all’ approach to reasonable adjustments was not applicable. Conclusion: This study has enabled new knowledge to be gained of the experiences of nursing students with disability and the implementation of their reasonable adjustments on clinical placement. The study has illuminated the importance of self-empowerment, belongingness and support to the participant’s success on clinical placement. However, there were some barriers identified that impacted their participation and inclusion with the required reasonable adjustments for clinical placement. Universities and health care facilities need to foster an environment more conducive to success for students with disability.

Date of Award	2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Supervisor	Esther Chang (Supervisor), Rebecca O'Reilly (Supervisor), Antoinette Cotton (Supervisor) & Amanda Johnson (Supervisor)