Nursing students with dyslexia: WWW support an ongoing project

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Nursing students with dyslexia WWW support - an
ongoing project

• David J Wright

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Introduction

• Health care professionals have a poor record in
  supporting individuals with disabilities
• Changes in social policy and legislation
• Government is keen to see healthcare services
  employ people with disabilities

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Nursing students and financial support

• Students receiving non-mean tested bursary are
  not entitled to DSA
• These students find support is not accessible
• Support on a national basis is ad-hoc
• Support is often a goodwill gesture such as
  this project

FOR MORE INFO...
See Financial Help for Health Care Students
http//193.32.28.83/hcsmain.htm
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The Dyslexia information Site a prototype
development

• Coordinated with two booklets

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The Dyslexia information Site a prototype
development - Cont.

• Cost of up-date and printing prohibitive
• More economical solution sought
• A web based solution seemed obvious choice
• Access to computers on site
• Access to computers via remote access and via
  local trusts

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The Dyslexia information Site a prototype
development - Cont.

• Collaboration with Dept. of Information Studies,
  Sheffield University Dr. Miguel Nunes Sobhna
  Katechia (MsC student)
• Aims of the project
• Provide readily available specific information
  for students with dyslexia and tutors who support
  them
• To develop a theoretical knowledge base on
  nursing students with dyslexia and how to support
  them
• To lay the foundations for future university and
  nation wide support systems

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The Dyslexia information Site a prototype
development - Cont.

• WWW access allows for
• Easy access through a familiar medium
• Gives just in time access
• Allows the user to adjust the interface to their
  preferences
• Flexibility in reading modes (on-line and off
  prints)
• Relatively low cost in maintenance and up-grading

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The Dyslexia information Site a prototype
development - Cont.

• The home page

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The DiS design issues

• Katechia undertook early development
• DiS Includes
• Structured rather than unstructured elements
• User has fewer options on how information is
  accessed compared to sites with a semantic net
  approach (free surfing)

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The DiS design issues

• Vertical structure
• One or more levels
• Pages linked to allow information and data to be
  grouped logically
• e.g. Lecturer and Student guides

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The DiS design issues
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The DiS design issues

• DiS is provided via the University network
• No access restriction, except for lecturers
  password and user name)

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Preliminary evaluation of DiS

• Evaluation was undertaken via the online
  questionnaire asking about
• Content
• Structure
• Navigation
• Initial responses suggest that the site is a
  welcome resource for both students and lecturers

FOR MORE INFO...
See See the Poster originally presented at the
SHIMR 2000 conference.
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Preliminary evaluation of DiS

• Content
• 98 of respondents (n31) Useful
• 90 information Just about right
• One student Good idea to have something like
  this, when I took six months out to have a tutor
  to try to correct my dyslexia there was no
  information available, Keep up the good work

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Preliminary evaluation of DiS

• Structure
• 80 of respondents suggested that the interface
  was pleasant
• One comment speculated that black writing on a
  yellow background would help dyslexic users
  discriminate between individual words

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Preliminary evaluation of DiS

• Navigation
• 86 of the respondents noted that the site was
  easy to navigate

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Discussion

• There is an expectation to include previously
  excluded individuals in the nursing profession
• This will have an impact on clinical practice for
  those who are not disability aware or have
  negative or ambivalent attitudes to individuals
  with disability

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Discussion Cont.

• Nurses with disabilities have a positive role to
  play within health care
• People with disabilities can bring a range of
  skills to the profession
• e.g. those with dyslexia
• Highly aware of the environment
• Intuitive and insightful
• Think and perceive multi-dimensionally

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Discussion Cont.

• With appropriate support students with dyslexia
  can and do achieve nursing registration
• It is with this in mind that DiS was developed
  it is proving to be a worthwhile resource

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Future plans

• To develop a
• University wide resource currently seeking
  funding
• national resource
• support system for clinicians who have, or
  support students with, dyslexia

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Conclusion

• Social policy and legislation changes gives more
  access to individuals, with disability, into the
  nursing services
• There is a need to provide appropriate support
  despite lack of funding
• DiS gave Wright, Nunes and Katechia the
  opportunity to work in a cross professional
  platform to develop a resource for nurse
  education
• DiS has evaluated well, but more work needs to be
  done to make this a national facility

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Conclusion Cont.

• If educators of nursing students within higher
  education and clinical practice offer support to
  students with dyslexia, clinicians themselves
  require access to knowledge and understanding

The Dyslexia information Site offers this!
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Nursing students with dyslexia WWW support - an
ongoing project
Thank You

• David J Wright