The experiences of people with developmental disability in Emergency Departments and hospital wards
Section snippets
Participants
Participants for the study were recruited through three major non-government disability service organizations. Two organizations provided services only to people with developmental disability (e.g., intellectual disability, cerebral palsy), and one organization provided services to both people with developmental disabilities and those with acquired disabilities (e.g., stroke, traumatic brain injury). Criteria for inclusion were that participants have a developmental disability and were aged 18
Respondent characteristics
Of the 328 people who responded, 159 were male and 167 were female. They were aged from 18 to 80 years (mean=38 years). Twenty-eight of the questionnaires were completed by people with disability themselves, while 295 were completed by a support person (5 people didn’t answer this question). It was reported that 223 people had an intellectual disability and 238 had a physical disability, such that they used a wheelchair or needed help with mobility. People were asked to indicate the methods
Discussion
The first question addressed in this study was the frequency with which adults with developmental disability or people who support them report problems with care provided in Emergency Departments or hospital wards. Our ability to address this question was limited by the poor response rate, and the fact that only a little over a third of respondents (119 of the total 328 respondents) were reporting about experiences that had occurred within a year of completing the questionnaire. Despite this
Acknowledgements
Thanks are extended to the organizations and their clients who participated in this study and to Dr. Georgina Sutherland for her comments on drafts of the manuscript. Portions of this paper were presented at the Australian Society for the Study of Intellectual Disability, Melbourne, November 2001.
References (33)
Attitudes of medical students and health-care professionals toward people with disabilities
Archive of Physical Medical Rehabilitation
(1993)Caring for a vulnerable population: Who will take responsibility for those getting a raw deal from the health care system?
Medical Journal of Australia
(1996)- Beange, H., & Bauman, A. (1990). Caring for the developmentally disabled in the community. Australian Family Physician,...
- et al.
Medical disorders of adults with mental retardation: A population study
American Journal on Mental Retardation
(1995) Mentally retarded patients: Special needs before and after surgery
AORN Journal
(1986)- Buzio, A., & Morgan, J. (2001). The experiences of adults with cerebral palsy during periods of hospitalisation....
Nursing the physically disabled in a general hospital
Journal of Clinical Nursing
(1996)- et al.
Replication of a managed health care initiative for people with mental retardation living in the community
Mental Retardation
(1994) - et al.
An evaluation of care coordination in controlling inpatient hospital utilization of people with developmental disabilities
Mental Retardation
(1995) - et al.
Parents’ experiences of general hospital admission for adults with learning disabilities
Journal of Clinical Nursing
(1999)
Learning-disabled people’s experience of general hospitals
British Journal of Nursing
Nursing the patient with severe communication impairment
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Attitudes of general practitioners to caring for people with learning disability
British Journal of General Practice
Behavioural outcomes of deinstitutionalisation for people with intellectual disability: A review of US studies conducted between 1980 and 1999
Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability
Knowledge, skills and attitudes: Medical schools’ coverage of an ideal curriculum on intellectual disability
Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability
Health care for people with an intellectual disability: General Practitioners’ attitudes, and provision of care
Journal of Intellectual and Developmental Disability
Cited by (90)
Healthcare inequities among adults with developmental disability: An integrative review with implications for nursing education
2021, Nurse Education in PracticeCitation Excerpt :Excluding studies conducted outside the United States may also be viewed as a limitation of this review. However, the themes of healthcare inequities identified in this review are generally consistent with research conducted on this topic in other countries (Ali et al., 2013; Axmon et al., 2019; Bowers et al., 2014; Byrne et al., 2015; Campbell, 2011; Gibbs et al., 2008; Iacono and Davis, 2003; Jones et al., 2008; Lunsky et al., 2019; Newton and McGillivray, 2019; Ouellette-Kuntz et al., 2015; Perry et al., 2014; Ryan and Scior, 2016; Sowney and Barr, 2008). It is important to note the international differences in practice guidelines, nursing education and professional competencies specific to the care of people with developmental disability.
Emergency department nurses’ knowledge, skills, and comfort related to caring for patients with intellectual disabilities
2020, International Emergency NursingCitation Excerpt :Thus, it is not surprising that research has shown people with ID and their caregivers report negative experiences in hospitals [16,9]. Research with people with ID and their caregivers, in both general hospital settings and EDs, has shown they do not feel respected by staff, and that staff harbour negative attitudes and beliefs about ID [35,23,17]. The literature also suggests staff tend to speak directly to the caregiver rather than the patient [9], patient needs are not always communicated or met, staff are discriminatory, and staff lack knowledge and skills in caring for patients with ID [35,16,37,9,23,7,17].
Intellectual disability health content within nursing curriculum: An audit of what our future nurses are taught
2016, Nurse Education TodayCitation Excerpt :The unmet health needs of people with ID are substantial (Robertson et al., 2015). Health inequalities for people with ID are evidenced by higher mortality rates, including premature death from preventable causes (Heslop et al., 2014; Trollor et al., 2015), with health conditions often undiagnosed or inappropriately treated (Iacono and Davis, 2003). Despite substantial reforms in the disability sector, and an expectation that this group will benefit from access to mainstream health services, the health needs of people with ID continue to be poorly met, with preventive healthcare, health promotion and general healthcare being inadequately addressed (Iacono and Davis, 2003; Rimmer and Braddock, 2002; Webb and Rogers, 1999).
Identifying communication difficulty and context-specific communication supports for patient-provider communication in a sub-acute setting: A prospective mixed methods study
2024, International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology