Disability-related content in nursing textbooks.

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Disability Studies
• Nursing Curriculum Development

Background:

• The American with Disabilities Act (1990) mandates equal access, yet people with disabilities (PWDs) report inadequate healthcare.
• Health professions education, particularly nursing, needs to integrate disability issues, as identified by key stakeholders.
• Existing nursing textbooks may not adequately prepare students to address the comprehensive needs of PWDs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the integration of disability issues within commonly used undergraduate nursing textbooks.
• To identify differences in disability content coverage across seven textbook categories.
• To inform necessary changes in nursing education and textbook content.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of 33 undergraduate nursing textbooks using a disability content review grid.
• Independent review by two researchers, with consensus ratings developed by a team for 224 content items.
• Analysis of consensus ratings by topic, textbook, and category, including written comments.

Main Results:

• Disability-related content was found to be largely absent across most textbooks and categories.
• Lifelong or pre-existing disability issues and abuse were infrequently addressed, despite their significance for PWDs.
• Significant differences in content inclusion were observed by textbook category (p = .005), with community health ranking highest.

Conclusions:

• Current nursing textbooks inadequately address disability, creating a gap in essential knowledge for future healthcare professionals.
• Nursing faculty must proactively incorporate disability content into curricula to compensate for textbook deficiencies.
• Urgent revisions by textbook authors and publishers are needed to reflect the healthcare needs of the 60 million PWDs.