Nursing students

This study describes the experiences of nursing students with disabilities through interviews, observations, and document analysis. The sample included five current students and five graduate nurses with physical or auditory impairments and 61 nursing faculty members, staff members, patients, and fellow students. The Colaizzi (1978) method of data analysis was modified to include additional information from interviews, observations, and documents. The findings revealed important concerns related to potentially unsafe nursing practice. The findings should assist nursing faculty with admission and retention decisions and development of reasonable accommodations. Recommendations for nursing programs to develop enforceable guidelines for admission and state regulatory boards of nursing to consider licensure with practice limitations are included.

Past research has found that among traumatized undergraduate women, proactive coping style was independently negatively associated with posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity. It also shows that nurses experience many work-related traumas. The present study tests the PTSD symptom level in nursing students and measured whether proactive coping and other personality variables could successfully buffer the effects of trauma. This study found a surprisingly low PTSD symptom level among the nursing students though they reported several distressing traumas. Also surprising, participants reported more distress from traumas relating to verbal abuse than to traumas relating to death and/or severe injury. Proactive coping, optimism, and self-esteem were negatively related to PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Further research will be needed to support these findings.