CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) – People with disabilities remain vastly underrepresented in the health care workforce, but a new initiative from the University of South Carolina is looking to change that.

South Carolina has one of the highest disability rates in the country.

One in three adults in the state reports having a disability but people with disabilities make up only 4% of the nation’s health care workforce.

A program in the University’s College of Nursing meant to fight this statistic just received funding from The Duke Endowment this month. It is designed to recruit and support individuals with disabilities who are interested in nursing careers.

Susan Newman, an endowed health sciences professor at USC and the founder of this initiative, says that the best way to do that is to start early.

“We hope with this new program that we’re starting to really begin with high school students who have disabilities who may have an interest in a career in the health profession, hopefully nursing,” Newman says.

These students have the chance to attend a summer immersion program on the USC campus where they can learn hands-on what it’s like to be a nurse. Participants will receive training on clinical skills, accessibility tools, disability rights and health equity in the College of Nursing’s state-of-the-art simulation center.

“This helps them really determine if this is something that they could possibly do with the disability and what kind of accommodations are available. Just to maybe help people see opportunities that they hadn’t thought about before,” Newman says.

But it doesn’t just include high school. In addition to the student program, the initiative also offers mentorship and career development resources for current nursing students and licensed nurses with disabilities. Newman says that strategy has positive mental and physical effects on patients.

“People with disabilities generally have poorer health outcomes, they have higher incidence of chronic conditions. One strategy to help address that is to have a health care workforce that reflects the population they serve. That’s been shown to help reduce disparities in other populations.”

She says this is mainly because seeing someone with their disability become their caretaker gives them a brighter outlook. Another key factor is their understanding of what it’s like to be a patient.

“People with disabilities have often spent a lot of time as patients themselves in the health care system. That adds a different level of empathy and understanding when they’re working with patients. You are also having similar experiences. So that similar shared lived experience that a nurse with a disability can bring to her nursing care is just an added layer that really helps,” Newman says.

Newman believes that perspective is essential in the development of this program as well. That’s why they’ve partnered with Able SC, a center for independent living run by people with disabilities, to gather their input in developing the curriculum for the summer program for the trainings for faculty and for the hospital staff.

Newman says this will not only eliminate a disparity in the workforce and help to make it more inclusive but, it will help fill the staffing gap many hospitals face.

“We know nursing shortages are real,” Newman says. “So, it’s really important for us to find ways to help accommodate nurses who have that expertise and knowledge but may practice a little differently, you know, physically from what we may think of.”

Newman says that nursing is the ideal industry for this because there are a vast amount of opportunities and paths within the field that can accommodate different disabilities. She credited the Americans with Disabilities Act, which celebrates its 35th anniversary on Saturday, July 26th for making that possible.

“No nurse is going to put themselves in a position where they would be unsafe in practice,” Newman says. “So, the Americans with Disabilities Act provides guidance for how to provide reasonable accommodations to do jobs. We have to remember nursing is not just one thing, not all nurses go to work at the bedside. And so people are going to find a job for them that works well with their disability.”

The multi-year program is expected to begin next summer and plans to admit around five high school students in its first year.

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