National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), recognized annually in October, is an opportunity to highlight and amplify the value of an inclusive workforce, specifically noting the important roles of disabled employees. We interviewed two board members with the National Organization of Nurses with Disabilities (NOND), Eileen (Leenie) Quinn, BSN, RN, and Parul Arora, NP, to discuss their personal journeys as nurses with disabilities, as well as their roles in advocating for and supporting nurses with disabilities.
Tell us about yourselves and the work you do with NOND.
Parul Arora:
I found NOND when I was going through a registered nurse program and I was having problems. I am a low-vision nurse and nurse practitioner, and so I have an invisible disability. I am currently practicing in palliative medicine as an outpatient nurse practitioner in a very big academic center in the city of Chicago. I'm the treasurer of NOND and have been for a significant amount of time.
Leenie Quinn:
I'm formerly an ICU nurse, so I was really excited to speak with AACN for this interview. I even earned my CCRN. Now I’m a device nurse; we need a different certification. I joined NOND after I had a bit of an incident getting into nursing school. The first week of nursing school, I was told, “You can't be a nurse” because I am missing my right hand. NOND helped me work with the school to rewrite their code of conduct, how they deal with nurses with disabilities and actually support them instead of turning them away because they had done so to multiple students.
I ended up attending a different nursing school that was a bit closer to home. When I went in with the dean, she said, "Yeah, my best friend in nursing school when I was there had one hand, and that was in the 1970s." And it just felt right!
I work in a cardiac device clinic, so we do all the programming for MRIs and checks in the hospital.
It's been a really cool journey, and it's been really fun working with NOND. I normally work with a lot of people with disabilities, specifically if they're missing a hand or having any limb deficiencies, educating them on what they can do to continue their nursing practice as well as making educational videos.
What advice or insight would you offer a nurse with a disability who is in the interview process (for a job or nursing school)?
Leenie:
The big thing is knowing your rights, your ADA rights, knowing what kind of accommodations you may need or discussing them openly, and working with your disability office as well if you're in school.
But knowing that, when you're applying for the job, ask about the tasks that you need to accomplish in order to have this job and be successful. When I was applying for nursing jobs, I personally did not feel that I would be a good fit for maybe the neonatal ICU where you would have extremely fine-tuned hand movements. I think it's knowing your space and where you would fit in best and having that conversation of what tasks you need to do. It’s also creating a safe space for patients.
I was very open and I said, “Look, when I put in a female catheter, I want someone else with sterile gloves in there with me. I want to keep sterile because I want to keep that patient safe.” And the fact that I recognized that right away with my employers, they were like, "Oh, she knows she's going to be safe because she knows what's affecting her because of her hand and in turn we can support her."
Parul:
I'll piggyback off that. I completely agree. I think employers are very concerned about patient safety. And we've heard this time and time again from institutions and nurses coming to us and saying, “This is what my employer is worried about.”
As a nurse with a disability, I am worried about that more than you because my license is at stake and I want to provide the best care and I will, because I don't know of any nurse that is going to apply for a job that they're not equipped to do.
Patient safety is always at the forefront for all nurses, not only nurses with disabilities, but all nurses. So, we share that. We have that in common. And then just to hone in or focus on the interview process and accessibility related to that. There's a lot of different opinions about when you should disclose that you have a disability and there's no right answer.
What is something that most people don’t know about nurses with disabilities?
Leenie:
Nurses with disabilities get a bad reputation that we are endangering patients. And there's no real evidence at all to support this. Everyone can make mistakes. And I would say on countless occasions, I have saved patients' lives because I'm so careful. I care about patient safety so much.
Parul:
That is a big misconception. In fact, we're likely to be more vigilant because we've had to advocate for ourselves consistently. And our vigilance and diligence are very fine-tuned.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2023, 22.5% of people with a disability were employed, the highest recorded rate since 2008. How important is it that the workforce is inclusive of people with disabilities?
Parul:
We know that a lot of focus has gone into diversity, equity and inclusion in many institutions and companies in recent years. One thing that is often overlooked is the fact that disability is a part of diversity. This affects us all, whether you are a healthcare provider or not; we all need to get involved to shape the culture of the institutions that we're working for. This is so important to the future of nurses with and without disabilities.
There needs to be more representation, and we want to diversify our workforce, especially to include people with disabilities. We bring strength, we bring diversity, we bring innovation. We figure out ways to do things that have never been thought of before.
With patient care, representation is important. What is the significance of patients receiving care from a nurse with a disability?
Leenie:
I think a wonderful surprise is how well nurses with disabilities relate to patients. I've been so honored by patients that have come back to visit me. I had this one gentleman, he was a tough guy. He just didn't want to do any sort of care, anything like that. I had him for a few days, and during that time he just watched me work in the ICU.
And all of a sudden, he just started turning around and he is like, "I'm going to come back and be healthier." About a month later, he came back to the ICU to visit me and said, "I've been biking 6 miles a day because I saw how hard you were working and I had no excuse anymore."
Parul:
I think nurses with disabilities represent creativity. We represent innovation and advocacy. We've had to advocate through programming and through school all our lives. So guess what we do for our patients and team members? We advocate for them too at a level that our non-disabled counterparts, I just don't think they have to.
Our persistence is so much different and our drive is different and our commitment is different, because we've had to do this to get to where we are. That's represented in our work ethic. It's also represented in how we treat our patients and how our patients identify with us.
What are some assistive technologies/devices that help nurses with disabilities perform their duties?
Leenie:
There's a need for more assistive technologies for nurses. I would say that in some ways, our technology is purely creativity.
We do ultrasound IVs in the ICU a lot because people's veins are not the greatest when they're in critical care conditions.
Parul:
It's interesting because when employers hear “assistive technology," they automatically think it's expensive, and that's absolutely not the case. Assistive technology does not have to be costly. It can actually be very cost-effective.
From a functional standpoint, you're helping your employee be at their functional capacity. I have a large laptop from my department that allows me to better see the screen since I have low vision.
And incidentally, because I have that laptop, it allowed me to work in the ER when we were facing uncertainty and staffing issues during the pandemic. Something so small made such a big difference in my quality of life and my function.
This year’s theme for NDEAM is “Access to Good Jobs for All.” What are some ways that employers can ensure they are supporting this theme, specifically, in nursing?
Parul:
I know that for my institution, we have tried hard to be and build a culture of inclusion. We've been recognized for it nationally, and I feel very grateful for that. So we have a dedicated person from Talent Acquisition who actually spearheads what's called the Disability Employment Resource Group, and there are a lot of different employment resource groups.
The disability one, of course, brings a community at my institution together to talk about issues, to look at how we can empower and hire more people with disabilities. And so for people looking to be more involved in their companies or institutions, I think there's a lot of diversity, equity and inclusion opportunities, whether they exist in subcommittees or subgroups.
Leenie:
Also, from an employer standpoint, supporting people with disabilities is important to retain staff. My employer has been so wonderful to me, and Parul can say the same. Once she was able to get all of those assistive technologies, it's like, "I don't want to leave. Why would I look for another job?" You're keeping your employees instead of training new ones. By supporting someone with a disability and giving them accommodations, you have an employee for life.
How can people and other organizations support NOND?
Leenie:
Become a member. Since we are all volunteer-based, it's really important to be able to have funds in order to give a talk at a university or a speaking engagement. Donations are really helpful, and it gives us more ability to help our constituents as well.
Another way to support NOND is to apply to become a volunteer. We're heavily recruiting for volunteers for our organization.
Parul:
We want to grow and we have the need of not only building our membership, but recruiting volunteers is big because we're volunteers. There's a lot of work to be done. We've done a lot. We still want to do a lot. And it's important work.
Leenie and I have this big connection to NOND because we found NOND when we were struggling in our nursing programming, and we're here today because of NOND.
Special Recognition:
Eileen Quinn is the 2024 recipient of The DAISY Award for Nurses Advancing Health Equity. She is NOND’s first honoree for this award. Learn more about her achievement.
NOND is an open membership, cross-disability, professional organization that works to promote equity for people with disabilities and chronic health conditions in nursing through education and advocacy. To become a member, to volunteer, donate or learn more about NOND, visit https://nond.org/.
Do you or someone you know have an inspiring nurse story to tell? We want to hear from you.
Submit your story idea.