Image credit: Shixart1985, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
New research highlights need for dedicated disability education in undergraduate nursing programmes to better prepare future nurses.
Almost one in five Australians live with a disability, and this group faces markedly higher rates of chronic illness and hospitalisation.
For health services, being equipped to respond to these needs is essential to delivering safe, equitable care.
Dr Lesley Andrew, senior lecturer at Edith Cowan University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery is the lead author of the study, in conjunction with Martina Costello, senior lecturer from Murdoch University’s School of Nursing.
The review assessed Australian nursing education’s approach to prepare its graduate nurses for disability care.
Andrew said: “Approximately 18% of Australians experience disability, with significant health inequities documented in this population.
“Despite nursing’s crucial role in addressing those inequities, questions remain about nurses’ preparedness to work effectively with people with a disability.”
Andrew said the findings indicated a lack of focus on disability education across Australian undergraduate nursing degree curricula.
She added: “The Australian Government is actively focused on enhancing disability rights, health equity, and improving the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) through significant reforms aimed at sustainability, better participant outcomes, and stronger mainstream service integration.
“As the majority health profession, nursing play a key part in the achievement of these reforms.”
Standards
Andrew said there is a need for mandatory disability education accreditation standards, embedding contemporary disability content across curricula and re-instating specialist disability pathways.
She advised: “There is a real opportunity here for universities to develop the content and put more of a focus on disability care during undergraduate courses.
“Mandatory disability content should be implemented, both as discrete units and embedded throughout the programme.
“Moving forward, it may also be prudent to re-introduce and expand specialised disability nursing courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to ensure workforce readiness to meet Australia’s population health needs.”
ECU is already working to strengthen its disability education across nursing and midwifery degrees.
Andrew said: “Current disability content at ECU focuses on the social model of health, which recognises the importance of wider structural factors that impact life opportunities for people with disability.
“Collaboration with people with disability will further strengthen the inclusion of disability across undergraduate nursing degrees.”
Commitment
More broadly, the focus on social justice in ECU’s new Learning and Teaching policy suite reflects its university-wide commitment to a systematic, evidence-informed and strengths-based approach to inclusive practice, incorporating disability content across all curricula.
Costello said Murdoch University is strengthening its disability-inclusive healthcare education through a renewed Bachelor of Nursing curriculum and innovative scenario-based learning.
She stated: “A central feature of the curriculum is Boyakoorlup/ Westvale, a purpose‑built fictional rural Western Australia town embedded across lectures, tutorials and simulation activities.
“Students meet a diverse group of community members, including people with Down syndrome, autism, hearing loss, acquired brain injury, paraplegia and cognitive decline, whose evolving stories introduce increasing complexity across multiple units.
“This approach helps students develop clinical reasoning, communication, cultural safety and ethical decision‑making in a realistic, compassionate way.”
The study is published in Nursing Forum.
