Promoting Healthy Aging of Individuals With Developmental Disabilities: A Qualitative Case Study

ADAPTATION AND TESTING OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITY ATTITUDES IN NURSING CARE INSTRUMENT

Background and Purpose: Individuals with developmental disability (DD) often experience poor health outcomes, potentiated by healthcare inequities. Nurses have the potential to reduce these inequities through the quality of care provided. The quality of care provided by nursing students, the future generation of nurses, is affected by the attitudes of their clinical nursing faculty. The purpose of this study was to adapt and test an instrument to specifically measure the attitudes of clinical nursing faculty toward providing care to people with DD. Methods: The Disability Attitudes in Health Care (DAHC) instrument was adapted to create the new Developmental Disability Attitudes in Nursing Care (DDANC) instrument. Results: Content experts reviewed the DDANC for content validity (CVI = 0.88), followed by testing for internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.7). The study respondents had overall positive attitudes toward the care of people with DD. Conclusions: The DDANC is an acceptably valid and reliable instrument to assess attitudes of clinical nursing faculty toward providing care to people with DD.

Healthcare inequities among adults with developmental disability: An integrative review with implications for nursing education

AIM

This integrative review synthesized research on the healthcare inequities experienced by adults with developmental disability in the United States and discussed implications for nursing education.

BACKGROUND

Individuals with developmental disability are living longer with chronic comorbidities and experience healthcare inequities.

METHOD

Application of inclusion criteria to database and ancestry searches resulted in 26 articles that were assessed for quality and analyzed thematically.

RESULTS

Three categories of inequity were identified: knowledge deficits, communication challenges and poor quality of care. Knowledge deficits and communication challenges can lead to frustration, errors and unmet needs. Poor quality of care encompasses the decreased availability and access to services, limited health promotion participation and higher rates of hospitalizations and complications for adults with developmental disability.

CONCLUSION

Healthcare inequities may be reduced by targeting patient and provider knowledge. Inclusion of developmental disability content and clinical experiences in nursing education may improve care and reduce inequities for this underserved population.