RN's Website Is a Fruitful Resource for Nurses With Disabilities

Donna Maheady, EdD, ARNP, wanted to create a virtual space for nurses with disabilities. So, that's what she did.

Maheady is the founder of ExceptionalNurse.com a website featuring real-life stories, information and resources for nurses with disabilities, as well as nursing students and those interested in the profession who are affected by disabilities.

"Lauren, my daughter, was born in 1986 and later diagnosed with autism, [obsessive-compulsive disorder], epilepsy and a host of other autism-related challenges," Maheady said.

"I quickly became an advocate for her, and over time expanded my advocacy efforts to include nurses and nursing students with disabilities," she said.

Maheady said she learned working with children with disabilities was her passion while working on a pediatric unit of a large teaching hospital early in her nursing career.

She chose to study the experiences of nursing students with disabilities as the research topic for her doctoral dissertation and found few resources existed to help guide nurses.

"Most nursing students with disabilities struggled to become nurses and find employment with or without reasonable accommodation," Maheady said.

So, Maheady did something about it. She launched ExceptionalNurse.com in 2001.

"The 501(c) 3 nonprofit provides information, support, mentors, employment opportunities, resources related to legal issues, social media groups, links to adaptive equipment and articles and research related to nurses and nursing students with disabilities," Maheady said. "ExceptionalNurse.com also awards scholarships to nursing students with disabilities every year."

Advocating for nurses with disabilities

Maheady has written three books:

Nursing Students With Disabilities Change the Course
Leave No Nurse Behind: Nurses Working with DisAbilities
The Exceptional Nurse: Tales From the Trenches of Truly Resilient Nurses Working With Disabilities

She also has written articles about the experiences of nurses and nursing students with disabilities.

The books offer first-person accounts from nurses and nursing students with disabilities, including those affecting hearing, vision, and learning as well as limb loss, spina bifida, lupus, and bipolar disorder.

Details within the chapters include the journey through nursing school, requesting reasonable accommodation, equipment, and support, and finding employment. Each chapter includes resources and contact information, Maheady said.

Visual representations of nurses with disabilities

Maheady also created the coloring book, "I Am a Nurse: Color Me Exceptional!"

The illustrations are inspired by real-life nurses with hearing or vision loss, spina bifida, dyslexia, sickle cell anemia, asthma, osteogenesis imperfecta, cerebral palsy or epilepsy, as well as nurses who are amputees, use wheelchairs, service dogs or sign language, according to Maheady.

These nurses work in hospitals, clinics, and camps, as well as for organ transplant registries, NASA, cruise ships, and amusement parks.

"I want children and adults with and without disabilities to know a nursing career is possible for everyone," she said. "We often hear comments such as 'we need to change the conversation or narrative,' but we also need to see more visual representations of people with disabilities in healthcare settings."

Maheady plans to continue advocating for nurses and nursing students with disabilities.

"Perhaps, another book or coloring book about nurses with disabilities," she said. "Doing the coloring book was fun! More fundraising and writing grants for scholarships for nursing students with disabilities (not so much fun, but very rewarding). As the back of the coloring book says: 'The sky is the limit!'"

Proceeds from sales of the coloring book support the Exceptional Nurse scholarship program for nursing students with disabilities.