Nursing presentation explores attitudes of health professions students towards persons with disabilities

During the 2023 West Virginia Rural Health Conference, Dr. Melanie Whelan presented “Attitudes Towards Persons with Disabilities among Dental, Medical and Nursing Students.” The study was conducted by Dr. Veronica Gallo, Dr. Whelan and Dr. Kerri Woodberry.

The interprofessional presentation, given Nov. 16, shared the results of the study, which examined attitudes of health profession students towards persons with disabilities in West Virginia. In 2021, first and senior year nursing, medical, dental hygiene, and dental students at WVU completed a survey featuring demographic and experiential questions, and the Attitudes toward Disabled People-form B (ATDP-B).

Researchers found no statistically significant difference in scores between first and senior year health professional students. In their discussion, they suggested the lack of a difference in this time frame could be the result of inadequate education, since more than half of the surveyed students indicated that they had non-existent education about caring for persons with disabilities.

In conclusion, the researchers suggested that educators should include standardized patients who have disabilities to curricula learning events to alleviate educational deficits.

-WVU-

CONTACT: Wendy Holdren
Director of Communications and Marketing
WVU School of Nursing
304-581-1772; wendy.holdren@hsc.wvu.edu