Hearing the deaf nursing student: Navigating inclusive nurse education in ableist learning environments

This aim of this discussion paper is to explore and reflect those biases and limiting discriminatory practices of those of us entrusted to support the educational journey of a deaf Mental Health student nurse, through his lens, to reconsider and re-examine what it means to be genuinely inclusive.

Adopting an ethos of social justice, this discussion connects the narrative of this student to those who supported him through his 3-year degree learning experience in university and clinical placements. Our reflections as educators are based on deconstructing and connecting concepts around ableist, stigmatizing discrimination alongside the student narrative.

A critical discussion paper.

Adopting the principles of a qualitative case study approach as a reflective evaluation to interrogate our pre-judgments, thought processes and habitual responses, to understand our complex roles in relation to enabling successful student journeys.

The inclusion of a deaf student in a 'hearing' cohort required pre-planning and great thought, for it to be truly inclusive. Although practical solutions to the physicality of communication was resolvable, the greater challenge and constant advocative negotiations from his Personal Tutor came from pre-conceived ideas and attitudes more in adult placement settings, whose apprehensions of this students' learning fixated around safety, responding to emergency bells and fast communication.

The approach to a person with disabilities needs to begin with the assumption that everyone has a right to contribute to and benefit from higher education and an equal chance to be what they perceive as their contribution to society.