Disability Inclusion in Nursing Education

Abstract A diverse nursing workforce is essential for progress toward the achievement of health equity and the mitigation of health disparities in the United States. Diversity in health care will improve the quality of care and access to care for underrepresented groups. The noted lack of diversity in nursing education also includes persons with disabilities. The legislative history that protects persons with disabilities are widely known; however, a recent action implemented by the federal government requires all facilities that receive federal contracts to employ a percentage of their workforce with disabled individuals. This new implementation will impact many health-care facilities and will increase the demand for educating health-care professionals with disabilities. Therefore, a nursing school in the southeast region of the United States was proactive to the call for more diversity in nursing’s workforce. The school revised their essential functions/core performance (technical) standards for admission to the undergraduate nursing program by collaborating with disability experts in the Access Center. The interprofessional collaboration was instrumental in creating new core performance standards that focus on the skills necessary to practice nursing safely rather than focusing on individual strengths or weaknesses. The purpose of this article is to share the nursing school’s new core performance standards and the background information related to best practices and improving health equity in nursing related to persons with disabilities.