Have you been thinking about a nursing career, but are afraid your disability would prohibit you from ever earning a degree? Are you a nurse with a disability and worried about how you can continue? Are you a nursing educator or guidance counselor struggling to find resources for a client? We know just the place for you.
Welcome to Exceptional Nurse, a website dedicated to inclusion for people with disabilities in the nursing profession. Developed and operated by Donna Maheady, Ed.D., ARNP, it is chock-full of resources, from nursing school scholarships to where to buy scrubs if your legs are uneven.
Click on Exceptional Nurses to find someone else who is blind and enjoying a satisfying nursing career. Connect with others who suffer seizures. Find help with financial aid for nursing school or disability scholarships. Locate a nursing program that has already graduated a deaf student. Search for a job.
Dr. Maheady has taught nursing for more than 20 years and her doctoral dissertation explored the experiences of nursing students with disabilities. She is an adjunct Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.
Apart from the Exceptional Nurse website, Dr. Maheady has written two books: Nursing Students with Disabilities and Leave No Nurse Behind: Nurses Working with disAbilities.
This phenomenal site serves as a model for assisting professionals, and those desiring to become professionals, with a disability. Learn what drove Dr. Maheady to start the site, and her vision for the future of nurses with disabilities.
DB: Why are you personally driven to advocate for nurses with disabilities?
DM: My daughter, Lauren, has a significant disability from autism, mental retardation, and uncontrolled seizures. She has been - and remains - the driving force behind my advocacy work for all people with disabilities.
I was a nurse and nurse educator when Lauren was born. Looking at the nursing profession and inclusion of nurses and nursing students with disabilities evolved naturally.
DB: How has your original vision changed from where the program is now?
DM: My original vision was small in comparison to where we are now. I never dreamed we would be where we are! You have to remember that I could barely pick up my email when I launched the website.
DB: What is the single biggest barrier to employment for people with disabilities, and how can it be overcome?
DM: Attitude and pre-conceived notions are the biggest barriers. We need a paradigm shift from viewing a nurse as a person with two strong legs, dexterous hands, a strong back, perfect vision, and sharp hearing to someone who is an intelligent, diligent, creative, problem solver.
DB: Where would you like to see Exceptional Nurse in five years? In ten years?
DM: Within the next five years, I would like to see Exceptional Nurse grow in whatever direction nurses and nursing students with disabilities take it.
The tide hasn’t turned yet. It’s more like a meandering river or stream. In some areas gains have been enormous, but if you move up or down stream a bit conditions may change drastically.
I would like to see more employment opportunities for nurses with disabilities listed on the website.
I would like to see the list of nurses with disabilities who are eager to work (they post Position Wanted ads on the website) dwindle.
And, of course I would love more help ... more volunteers and more financial support.
I would love more media attention to the issues and have Oprah do a show that showcases the contributions of nurses with disabilities.
In ten years, I would like to see the website serve as a historical reference for the way things used to be...
I would like to see the organization become unnecessary because nurses with disabilities have become such an integral part of the fabric of the profession. I dream BIG!
