Dr Lesley Andrew said ECU is already working to strengthen its disability education across nursing and midwifery degrees. Credit: iStock Lordn
New research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has highlighted the need for dedicated disability education in undergraduate nursing programs to better prepare future nurses.
Almost one in five Australians live with a disability, and this group faces markedly higher rates of chronic illness and hospitalisation. For health services, being equipped to respond to these needs is essential to delivering safe, equitable care.
Dr Lesley Andrew, Senior Lecturer at ECU's School of Nursing and Midwifery is the lead author of the study, in conjunction with Martina Costello, Senior Lecturer from Murdoch University's School of Nursing.
The review assessed Australian nursing education's approach to prepare its graduate nurses for disability care.
"Approximately 18 per cent of Australians experience disability, with significant health inequities documented in this population," Dr Andrew said. "Despite nursing's crucial role in addressing those inequities, questions remain about nurses' preparedness to work effectively with people with a disability."
Dr Andrew said the findings indicated a lack of focus on disability education across Australian undergraduate nursing degree curricula.
"The Australian Government is actively focused on enhancing disability rights, health equity, and improving the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) through significant reforms aimed at sustainability, better participant outcomes, and stronger mainstream service integration," Dr Andrew said. "As the majority health profession, nursing play a key part in the achievement of these reforms."
Dr Andrew said there is a need for mandatory disability education accreditation standards, embedding contemporary disability content across curricula and re-instating specialist disability pathways.
"There is a real opportunity here for universities to develop the content and put more of a focus on disability care during undergraduate courses," Dr Andrew said. "Mandatory disability content should be implemented, both as discrete units and embedded throughout the program.
"Moving forward, it may also be prudent to re-introduce and expand specialised disability nursing courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to ensure workforce readiness to meet Australia's population health needs."
ECU is already working to strengthen its disability education across nursing and midwifery degrees.
"Current disability content at ECU focusses on the social model of health, which recognises the importance of wider structural factors that impact life opportunities for people with disability," Dr Andrew said. "Collaboration with people with disability will further strengthen the inclusion of disability across undergraduate nursing degrees."
More broadly, the focus on social justice in ECU's new Learning and Teaching policy suite reflects its university-wide commitment to a systematic, evidence-informed and strengths-based approach to inclusive practice, incorporating disability content across all curricula.
Dr Costello said Murdoch University is strengthening its disability-inclusive healthcare education through a renewed Bachelor of Nursing curriculum and innovative scenario-based learning.
"A central feature of the curriculum is Boyakoorlup/Westvale, a purpose‑built fictional rural WA town embedded across lectures, tutorials and simulation activities," Dr Costello said. "Students meet a diverse group of community members, including people with Down syndrome, autism, hearing loss, acquired brain injury, paraplegia and cognitive decline, whose evolving stories introduce increasing complexity across multiple units.
"This approach helps students develop clinical reasoning, communication, cultural safety and ethical decision‑making in a realistic, compassionate way."
The study, ‘Preparation of Australian Nurses for Contemporary Disability Care: A Desktop Review' was published in Nursing Forum.
