DEIAA Newsletter
ACNL |Q3 2026 Newsletter
The Transformative Role of Associate Degree Nursing
Daniel B. Flores Jr., DNP, MSN/ED, BSN, RN
Submitted by: Dr. Nicole M. Barnett, DHSc, MBA, RN, NEA-BC
As September begins, I am reminded of the important role associate degree nursing education plays in creating opportunities, strengthening communities, and preparing the next generation of registered nurses.
The Organization for Associate Degree Nursing serves as the national voice and a pivotal resource for community college nursing education and the associate degree pathway. Through leadership, collaboration, advocacy, faculty development, and support for academic progression, OADN remains committed to advancing excellence in nursing education and ensuring that the associate degree continues to be a respected and accessible entry point into professional nursing practice.
Supporting First-Generation College Students
Many of the students entering our programs are first-generation college students. They arrive with aspirations that extend far beyond earning a degree. They are working to change the direction of their lives, improve the financial security of their families, and become healthcare professionals who will serve the very communities in which they were raised.
Their journey is rarely easy. Many balance employment, family responsibilities, financial hardship, and the demanding expectations of nursing school while continuing to pursue their goal of becoming registered nurses.
A Beginning, Not an Ending
For these students, an associate degree is not the end of their educational journey. It is a strong beginning steppingstone toward lifelong learning, professional advancement, leadership, and graduate education.
OADN supports pathways that allow associate degree nurses to enter practice, serve their communities, and continue progressing toward baccalaureate, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Every educational achievement should open the door to the next opportunity.
Nursing Education as a Pathway to Economic Stability
This mission is especially important in today’s changing economy. The cost of housing, food, transportation, childcare, and other necessities continues to place significant pressure on individuals and families. Poverty and financial insecurity are increasing in many of the communities served by associate degree nursing programs.
Becoming a registered nurse can provide a substantial financial boost, greater employment stability, access to benefits, and opportunities for long-term career growth. A nursing education can change not only the life of the graduate but also the future of an entire family.
Diez y Seis de Septiembre: Courage, Identity, and Opportunity
September also offers an opportunity to recognize Diez y Seis de Septiembre, the commemoration of Mexico’s struggle for independence. This observance holds deep cultural meaning throughout the Southwest Region and beyond. It represents courage, determination, identity, and the pursuit of a better future.
These same qualities are reflected in many of our students, particularly those whose families have overcome cultural, educational, economic, and generational barriers in search of a better way of life.
A Father’s Belief in the Power of Education
This message is personal to me. My father was unable to complete his high school diploma, but he understood the transformational power of education. He repeatedly encouraged my sister and me to obtain as much education as possible because, as he told us, education would open doors.
His words remained with me throughout my journey from vocational nursing to registered nursing and ultimately to doctoral education. The opportunities I have received are a testament to his wisdom, his sacrifices, and his belief in what education could make possible.
OADN’s Commitment to Faculty and Students
As Director of the Southwest Region, I have learned over the past two years that OADN’s commitment extends far beyond promoting the associate degree pathway. OADN is focused on supporting nursing faculty, empowering students, advocating for community college nursing programs, developing future leaders, and creating pathways for continued professional and academic growth.
This work strengthens our programs and helps ensure that students from every background have an opportunity to enter the nursing profession and advance as far as their abilities and aspirations will take them.
Gratitude for Those Who Open Doors
To the educators, administrators, clinical partners, and advocates who serve associate degree nursing students: thank you. Your work creates opportunities, changes family legacies, and strengthens the nursing workforce.
Every student you encourage, mentor, and prepare represents another door opened—not only for that student, but also for the patients, families, and communities that nurse will one day serve.
Moving Forward Together
Let us continue to safeguard and advance the associate degree pathway as an essential, respected, and life-changing entry into professional nursing. Together, through the mission and leadership of OADN, we can ensure that opportunity remains within reach and that every aspiring nurse has a pathway to education, service, and professional growth.
In November, we will gather in my hometown of San Antonio, Texas, for the 2026 OADN Annual Convention. This year’s theme is Empowering the ADN Educator: Flourishing with Strength and Sustainability. Recognize that OADN Annual Convention is the only national conference exclusively dedicated to addressing the needs of associate degree nursing programs.
I invite you to join us as we network, collaborate, celebrate OADN’s accomplishments, and explore new and innovative ways to strengthen and sustain the associate degree nursing education pathway.
As my tenure as Director of the Southwest Region comes to an end, I remain committed to advancing OADN’s mission and priorities. I also look forward to supporting the incoming Southwest Regional Director in any way that I can as this important work continues.
San Antonio’s famous River Walk awaits you, and I hope to see you in November!
Disability as Strength: Promoting Inclusion in Emergency Nursing Teams
Vanessa Cameron, PhD, RN, NPD-BC, CEN, CNL
Submitted by Joy Kiat-Floro, MBA, MSN, RN, NPD-BC, AMB-Bc
Disability is a concept not often discussed alongside nursing—or at least not in the context of the disabled person being the carer, rather than the cared for. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines disability as “any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for the person with the condition to do certain activities (activity limitation) and interact with the world around them (participation restrictions).”1 Historically, disability is associated with being less capable, valuable, or worthy as members of society and the workforce. Ableism is the discrimination of individuals based on disability status; however, a more complete definition describes ableism as “the discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities based on the belief that typical abilities are superior…it classifies entire groups of people as ‘less than’ and includes harmful stereotypes, misconceptions, and generalizations of people with disabilities.”2
Ableism is closely aligned with the medical model of disability, which is built on the foundations of exclusion from spaces, along with pathologizing disabilities, and worsens power imbalances and leads to increased vulnerability for disabled people.3 Microaggressions are “commonly occurring, brief, verbal or nonverbal, behavioral, and environmental indignities that communicate derogatory attitudes or notions toward a different ‘other'.”4 These negative biases and assumptions in health care and especially in emergency departments, where we often have limited information to make decisions, worsen health disparities for disabled people while also signaling to disabled nurses that they are not welcome. I hope that, as you read my own personal story of disability and all it has taught me, we can collectively start to create a world where disabled nurses are not only accepted but intentionally included.
Journey Into Disability
Ten years into my nursing career, I was running a residency program in an emergency department, supporting continuing education for all staff, and collaborating with hospital-wide teams to improve our quality outcomes. I was actively engaged in work in cultural humility and considered myself to be thoughtful and intentional, working with nurses, staff, and patients from all backgrounds. However, in April 2021, everything changed. During a spring break trip with my family, an awkward rock-climbing fall led me instantly into life with a disability. As a nurse, I recognized almost immediately that I had injured my spinal cord, and while waiting for help to arrive, I remember thinking that my life as I knew it was over. Every vision I had of myself—my family, career aspirations, and personal goals—felt completely incompatible with the assumptions that I was making about my future life with a disability.
Out of what felt like sheer stubbornness, 4 months later, I returned to my role in the emergency department as a full-time wheelchair user. I had naively assumed that returning to a hospital would mean easy accessibility, but I quickly found that even the health care system itself is profoundly inaccessible. What followed my return to work were months of accommodation trial and error and unexpected physical barriers: inaccessible spaces, heavy fire doors, and automatic sensors that no longer registered my presence because I was seated. And then there were the emotional barriers—the daily reminders that disability changes not only how the world sees you but how it treats you. I was stopped and questioned for using staff elevators, repeatedly assumed to be a patient despite wearing business clothes and a registered nurse badge, and met with either awkward jokes or outright avoidance from colleagues who suddenly did not know how to interact with me. The microaggressions were constant and exhausting. As a middle-class, cisgender white woman with a lot of recognized privilege throughout my nursing career, I was suddenly thrust into a space that had always felt safe, but now clearly did not consider me as an equal. It was overwhelming and changed my perspective in a way I can never unsee.
Surprisingly, the hardest part of my return to work was not physical; it was not knowing how to reconcile my personal (disabled) and professional (nurse) identities that no longer seemed compatible. I did not personally know a single wheelchair-using nurse and had no roadmap or peer group who understood what it meant to return to a clinical work environment with a body that suddenly functioned differently, and I was still getting to know. Despite having extraordinary leadership and departmental support, the experience was isolating. Each morning that I rolled into the department, I accepted that anyone who did not know me would doubt my belonging and capability before I even had the chance to speak.
Rebuilding My Identity
What ultimately kept me moving forward was the realization that, in many ways, I had become better at my job.
Given that many aspects of my job had become physically more demanding, I was compelled to reassess every aspect of my course design and delivery, as well as how I supported staff in the unit. I began to work smarter and more intentionally by redesigning activities, adjusting my facilitation style, refining my method and timing of unit rounding, and continually adapting as I learned what worked well. This shift in my understanding and approach made me better where it mattered most—in the connection I created with the ED staff and in my ability to help them understand the profound impact of their care.
I suddenly understood concepts and caring in a way I never had before—how pain can be invisible, how it shapes behavior, and how dissociation or hyperfixation can be coping mechanisms rather than signs of noncompliance or exaggeration. I now have a deep understanding of the importance of listening to patients and their families, even when the focus seems inconsistent with your priorities.
I also experienced feeling excluded for the first time. Feeling unwelcome and unseen fundamentally changed my awareness of my own words, actions, and biases. I became more patient, creative, and intentional in making learning inclusive. And every day, even when I felt like a spectacle, I reminded myself of the value I brought because of, not despite, my disability that ultimately made me a stronger, more empathetic nurse and educator.
Three Lessons Disability Has Taught Me
As nurses, we each bring different strengths to the team. My disability does not prevent me from being a nurse; it simply reshapes the role I choose to play.
Here are 3 truths that I have learned along the way:
- Disability and nursing are not incompatible. Contrary to the assumptions that are rampant in health care related to disabled nurses, we can bring invaluable knowledge and skills to the workforce to improve health care outcomes. Every single day, disabled people practice proactive planning, advocacy, problem solving, and adaptability—skills that elevate nursing practice and strengthen our teams.
- Nurses must stop sacrificing themselves in the name of caring for others. Nurse heroics refers to the “culture nurses have created wherein one is supposed to go above and beyond what is reasonable in fulfilling one’s duties.”5 It is a professional culture of self-neglect for the “good” of the team, and I was as guilty as the next person of striving for this as the professional standard. However, becoming disabled forced me to prioritize my own needs and ask for help. I learned that, in doing so, I became a better colleague and better nurse because I had my own needs met. Asking for what we need does not make us weak; it makes us human. Vulnerability supports authentic connection with others.
- Lived experience deepens compassion. My disability has made me a more understanding and empathetic person. It shapes how I teach, lead, care for myself and others, and build relationships. And it has made me more committed to advocating for spaces where every nurse can thrive.
Disabled Nurses Belong in the Emergency Department
Disabled nurses are innovators. We are flexible thinkers. We understand what it feels like to be on the other side of care—sometimes not believed, sometimes not welcomed—and we carry the trauma of that with us to do better for those we accompany in care. In the emergency department, where teamwork, creativity, and rapid problem-solving are essential, these lived disability experiences are not obstacles; they are assets.
I would not have self-selected this path, but I also cannot imagine who I would be without the perspective it has given me. My life is harder, yes, but it is no less valuable, worthy, or capable of shaping meaningful change in health care. In many ways, I believe I contribute more now than I ever did before. Here’s to intentionally seeing the value of disability in health care and to recognizing the transformative impact that representation can have, especially in the emergency department, a place that saved my life twice—once physically and once by reshaping my identity as a disabled nurse.
References
1. Disability and health overview. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Updated 2025
Date accessed: December 8, 2025
2. Eisenmenger, A. - Ableism 101 – what is ableism? What does it look like? Access Living
https://www.accessliving.org/newsroom/blog/ableism-101/
Date: Published December 12, 2019
Date accessed: December 8, 2025
3. APA Dictionary of Psychology: “Microaggression.”.American Psychological Association, Updated 2023 https://dictionary.apa.org/microaggression
Date accessed: December 8, 2025
4. Hogan, A.J. Social and medical models of disability and mental health: evolution and renewal
CMAJ: Can Med Assoc J. 2019; 191(1):E16-E18 https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.181008
5. Neal-Boylan, L. ∙ Guillett, S.E. Registered nurses with physical disabilities
J Nurs Admin. 2008; 38(1):1-3 https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NNA.0000295630.95592.ae
Read
Healthcare Education: Strategies for Inclusive Learning
by Vanessa K. Cameron (Author), Jennifer L. Bodine (Author), Jillian A. Russell (Author)Learning Objectives
After reading this guide, you will be able to:
- Define key concepts related to inclusive learning and describe their relevance within healthcare education and professional development.
- Recognize how implicit bias, systemic inequities, and educational design choices influence learner experiences and outcomes.
- Apply evidence-informed strategies to create, implement, and evaluate inclusive learning environments in academic, transition-to-practice, or continuing education settings.
- Reflect on personal and organizational practices to identify opportunities for advancing inclusivity and equity within healthcare education.
Association of California Nurse Leaders
Email: info@acnl.org
Website: https://www.acnl.org/
Location: 180 Promenade Circle suite 300, Sacramento, CA 95834, USA
Phone: 916-779-6949