Deaf people in Nursing

Charliesch
Sat, 02 Jul 2016 01:49:36 +0000

I’m assuming you are truly deaf, and not just hearing impaired in a way that could be electronically corrected. I don’t mean to be callous, but even if a college would accept you as a nursing major, there is a risk that a hospital would refuse to approve you for clinicals. I’d suggest considering looking for a field that involves a little less threat of a communications delay or communications problem resulting in serious injury to others. I imagine there are other health care fields that would involve a lower risk to patients.

Here’s one report I found:

"State Boards of Nursing are all mandated to ensure patient safety. By including a wide variety of people with different life experiences, we will be able to ensure safety as well as meet the critical need to provide culturally relevant care within our communities. For instance, having nurses who are Deaf and use American Sign Language or are proficient with reading lips can meet a vast unmet need; and, most likely will enhance safe patient care, as they will be able to communicate directly with people who are Deaf and not rely on interpreters (especially good for people receiving psychotherapy and people making life altering decisions). Additionally, nurses who are hard of hearing often have an enhanced skill in being able to read lips which could easily be an essential job function when trying to communicate with someone who is only able to move their lips. For example, one hospital in California has a respiratory therapist who is deaf and in high demand because she is the only person who can accurately read the lips of cancer patients who have recently undergone a tracheotomy and can’t talk[46]. Nurses with disabilities are often hyper-vigilant in regards to safe practice, as they often know from personal experiences the pitfalls of unsafe nursing care. "