Implementing Reasonable Adjustments on Medicine and Health Placements

Lucy Kearns (Disability Services)

Project overview

Around 730 disabled students in Medicine and Health access reasonable adjustments for studies, created by Disability Services and implemented by staff. However, implementing reasonable adjustments for students on placements has proved more challenging, for reasons which this project will explore further.

It will explore how satisfied disabled Medicine & Health students are with the support they receive on placements, how easily student support staff are able to share information with placement providers and how much guidance clinical staff receive to support disabled students.

The findings will enable the University to improve the experiences of disabled students on clinical placements and create a streamlined process for information sharing between placement providers.

The research approach

I will use qualitative research methods to gather views of university staff to collectively discuss problems that arise when disseminating Summary Sheets to placement providers, or when supporting students.

Disabled Medicine and Health students will be recruited to partake in surveys and listening rooms to provide first-hand accounts of their experiences working on clinical placements.

Lastly, I plan to interview clinical staff who support students on placements to identify barriers or gaps in their knowledge about disability.

Data will be collected through anonymised surveys, focus groups and individual interviews. Findings will be presented through graphs and will include specific quotes of student experiences where possible.

If you would like to find out more about the project contact Lucy Kearns

@disabledonplacement

Each fellowship has a project sponsor that helps the fellows achieve impact across the institution. The sponsor for this fellowship is Chris Warrington

Project start date: September 2024