All three interviewees discussed varieties of focus and approach in dealing with people with disabilities. Nurse 1 emphasized on communication as the main issue pertaining to disability, whereas Nurse 2 emphasized on meeting a person’s needs and providing resources. Nurse 3 focused on providing individualized care based on each person’s situation. Nurse 1, Nurse 2 and Nurse 3 believed that nurses are open, supportive, caring and understanding of people with disabilities and their needs.
Safety-Equipment use In regards to nurses’ safety, Nurse 1 stated that nurses could get injured when working with the disabled people because of “time constraint” or unavailability of equipment. Nurse 2 reported having “minimal safety concerns” as …show more content…
Nurse1 described communication as a major issue in taking care of disabled people who cannot communicate and with the “lack of communication with the families,” they do not know the extent of somebody’s disability. Nurse 1 also emphasized the importance of having communication between family, caregivers, and healthcare team in order to improve safety and provide appropriate care for the patient. Nurse 3 found communicating about the disability with the patient challenging and mentioned about doing right amount of conversation so that nurses do not “step over the line.” Nurse 3 also mentioned accommodating disabled family members who come as visitors while prioritizing patient’s care at the same time in a small room to be difficult. Nurse 2 talked about difficulty in communicating with patients with mental disabilities because their nurses come from different backgrounds and they have “lack of experience in working with people with disabilities.” Both Nurse 1 and Nurse 3 mentioned that using plan of care, notifying other members of the team about patient, and having open communication can improve communication between the patient and healthcare team, whereas Nurse 3 mentioned that “sitting down and having a discussion with the patient” to identify patients’ needs can improve …show more content…
In addition, Nurse 2 also mentioned a negative experience about not giving priority to disability issue because the “focus is... on the person’s initial or acute issue… and they may not be as focused on disability.” Nurse 3 pointed out a negative issue regarding family member who are also disabled and need special accommodation, but nurses have to prioritize patients’ care over that family member who may be important for the patient. Another negative issue mentioned by Nurse 3 is that patients have expectation that nurses are always compassionate and sensitive to their needs. However, sometimes, nurses have to prioritize patients’ medical needs more that their psychological and physical needs which could influence patients’ perspective of the