A Natural Part of Human Diversity

Abstract

This fourth issue of Creative Nursing 2025 focuses on people with disabilities (another example of seldom-heard voices), those who are or want to be nurses and those for whom nurses care. Ableism in nursing education has kept out generations of people with disabilities, and our profession is the poorer for it. In this journal issue we hear the voices of content experts about structures and processes needed to enact true inclusion of people with disabilities (including accommodations, communication, leadership, design, technology, advocacy, and policy work), and personal accounts of student learners and professional nurses living with disabilities visible or invisible that have a direct impact on their practice. We hear about varying degrees of inclusion extended to people with achondroplasia, d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing college students, children with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and their families, and people coping with laryngeal dystonia, sudden blindness, and preparation for discharge to home after a stroke. An article in our series on methodology focuses on qualitative description, in which researchers recruit participants with diverse experiences or who can provide detailed information regarding the phenomenon under study. And we present three recently published articles of general interest, all related either to nursing education or innovations in practice.