Nursing students with disabilities

Nursing is a self-licensing profession with an ever-increasing responsibility to develop and sustain public trust. Thus, there is a need for nurses not only to be accountable and trustworthy but to be perceived by the public as accountable and trustworthy. Recognizing the special need for trust in caregivers, the Faculty of Health Professions at Dalhousie University has recently instituted a policy enabling its schools to suspend or terminate a student from a program based on the student's professional unsuitability. Unsuitability could include a type of conduct (criminal behavior, substance abuse or unethical behavior) or a health impairment that affects the student's ability to meet performance requirements. The challenge for the health profession schools, including Nursing, is to develop specific guidelines for implementing the policy. Guidelines on performance requirements for students with disabilities will be particularly difficult to define.