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Despite evidence that health care professionals, including nurses, do not perceive persons with disabilities in a positive light and fail to attend to their health care needs, it is not known how nursing programs address the topic of disability. This descriptive study was conducted to examine the extent to which schools of nursing in the United States address disability-related issues and the strategies used to integrate disability-related content in their curricula. A 27-item investigator-developed survey was sent to a national stratified random sample of 1,000 schools of nursing. Questions pertained to curricular content, specific groups of persons with disabilities, and teaching methods and resources used to teach nursing students about disability. Respondents indicated that they included some content related to disability in their curricula. Nursing textbooks were the most common source of information used. Barriers to including disability-related content were lack of time and lack of faculty interest or expertise. These findings can serve as a stimulus to increase the extent and breadth of disability-related issues in nursing curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the American with Disabilities Act in 1990 mandated that people with disabilities (PWDs) have equal access to facilities and services, men and women with disabilities continue to report receiving inadequate health care. The need to address disability in health professions education, including nursing, has been identified by the U.S. Surgeon General, researchers, and the disability community. This study examined how disability issues are integrated in textbooks commonly used in nursing programs and differences in coverage by seven textbook categories (e.g., medical-surgical, pediatrics). A total of 33 textbooks used in undergraduate nursing curricula were systematically reviewed for inclusion of disability content using a review grid developed with the input of PWDs. Two researchers independently reviewed each textbook and at least three members of the team developed consensus ratings for each of 224 content items for each textbook. Sums of consensus ratings were calculated for each topic, each textbook, and all seven categories of textbooks. Ratings of each category of disability-related content were calculated and ranked from highest to lowest. Two investigators reviewed the consensus ratings for each category of book as well as written comments provided during the initial steps of the review. Analysis revealed that disability-related content was largely absent from textbooks and categories of textbooks. Although disabling conditions were discussed, issues related to lifelong or preexisting disability were often not addressed. Abuse, a major issue for PWDs, was barely addressed in detail in any of the textbooks. There were significant differences (p = .005) in inclusion of disability-related content by type of textbook; the highest ranked category was community health. Topics that would be expected in specific categories were often addressed infrequently or not at all. The results of this study suggest the need for faculty members to address disability in their nursing curricula in creative ways until textbook authors and publishers begin to address this issue. The large and growing population of 60 million individuals with disabilities mandates this action.

The purpose of this study was to describe strategies used by clinical nurse specialists when caring for patients involved in "difficult" clinician-patient situations. Clinical nurse specialist members of the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists were surveyed to identify frequently used and high-priority strategies. Subjects (N = 234) identified strategies from a wide spectrum of activities, with agreement found between highest and lowest frequently used and priority approaches. Respect for the patient and ability to focus on the issue at hand emerged in the highest reported strategies.