Supporting Students with Disability in Practice: Bridging the Gap

Sarla Ghandi

Abstract below..

The Equality Act (2010) replaced previous inequality laws with one single act and as such the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) is now part of this legislation. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a responsibility to assess individual students’ needs and then make reasonable adjustments to that individual’s programme of study to ensure that the student receives the support they need to achieve their full potential (Equality and Human Rights Commission, 2010). This requirement applies to both academic and placement based learning environments.  The number of students with disabilities enrolling onto courses within higher education is increasing year on year (HESA, 2009; Ashcroft et al, 2008; Fleming, 2005). According to HESA (2009) about 6.8% of undergraduate students have disclosed a disability. In health related courses within our institution an average of 10-15% of students have a diagnosed disability.

Although the University has a well-developed assessment and support strategy for supporting students in the academic setting, this did not translate to the practice setting where a large portion (up to 50%) of learning takes place on professional health and social care programmes.  This project was developed to address a gap to support health students with disabilities experiencing learning in practice placement settings. The cross school project team liaised with practice, university disability services and students to facilitate a unique approach following an extensive scoping exercise of similar provisions.

The cross school and practice partner team, consisting of the School of Health disability coordinator, Health and Social Care placement learning support unit lead, academic responsible for Physiotherapy and Practice Education Facilitators (PEFs) from a community healthcare trust and an ambulance trust developed a student self-assessment tool which informs the development of an individualised learning plan and identification of suggested reasonable adjustments for use in the placement setting. A process map details the student journey from disclosure to practice ensuring a student centered approach throughout. A best practice guide gives clarity to the process and the benefits of disclosure for students, academic and practice staff.

Tools have been developed to ‘Bridge the Gap’ where nothing else existed. The team have experienced an increase in early disclosure, an increase in reasonable adjustments in place for students at the commencement of their placement and correspondingly an increase in student satisfaction, a reduction in students failing practice assessments due to lack of reasonable adjustments, a reduction in student attrition, and an increase in student retention. We also believe that this project has enhanced communication between the University and our placement partners. The team also envisages early engagement and enhancement of the personal tutoring system, through collaborative working on the individualised learning plans by student and personal tutor.

Although initially developed for health and social care students, there is potential for this to be adapted not only by other programmes, but across other academic disciplines with work based learning elements.  

References

Ashcroft, T.J., Chernomas, W.M., Davis, P.L., Dean, R.A.K., Seguire, M., Shapiro, C.R., Swiderski, L.M., (2008) Nursing students with disabilities: one faculty’s journey. International Journal of Nursing 5 (1), 1–15.

Disability Discrimination Act (1995) London: HMSO

Equality Act (2010) http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/pdfs/ukpga_20100015_en.pdf

Fleming, S., 2005. Nurses with disabilities: fear of discrimination still exists, but laws and technology create inroads. American Journal of Nursing 105 (6), 25–26.

Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2009. Student tables: disability. 2006/07. 2005/06 and 2004/05. www.hesa.ac.uk/holisdocs/pubinfo/stud.htm (01.02.2009).