305812
Disability Rights and Accomodations: Setting A Standard of Care
Methods: The Task Force meets monthly with members including administrators, staff, faculty, and inter professional students. Purposefully the task force includes decision makers in human resources, patient services, transportation, building and maintenance, and curriculum, among others, in order to facilitate implementation of solutions to issues with access, discrimination, and accommodation.
Results: The Rush ADA Task Force has generated a list of accomplishments including: 24 programs for improved access and services, with two components that have 19 improvements between them, as well as 35 disability training, outreach, and education programs. Our new hospital tower has over 45 instances of accommodations and accessibility. Our patients and their significant others experience an inclusive culture supported by proactive hospital policies. Currently the Task Force is identifying and training veterans, increasing employment for people with disabilities, acting on requested student and staff accommodations, and using online training for nurses who care for our adult patients with intellectual/development disabilities. We have annually celebrated people with disabilities. We have won national awards for disability advocacy.
Conclusions: RUMC signature programs have included training for those inside and outside of our institution, in areas that cross all of our fourteen protected classes. The ADA Task force is successful due to its empowered membership and policy adaptations.
Learning Areas:
Administration, management, leadershipAdvocacy for health and health education
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related laws, regulations, standards, or guidelines
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health
Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate setting a standard of excellence in advocacy for individuals with disabilities.
Evaluate components of a sustainable, interprofessional effort to improve overall quality of life for individuals with disabilities.
Keyword(s): Disabilities, Accessibility
Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a faculty member and student at Rush University College of Nursing. I have pursued clinical practice and research related to individuals with disabilities for the past 7 years. I am a disabled U.S. Navy veteran and a member of the Rush University Americans with Disabilites Act (ADA) Task Force.
Any relevant financial relationships? No
I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.