Grant: DRA : Canada Graduate Research Scholarship - Doctoral Program (CGRS D)

Many hospitals and clinics are facing nursing shortages. One of the ways to address these shortages is to improve the culture and working conditions experienced by undergraduate nursing students and registered nurses. Within nursing culture, disabled, neurodiverse, racialized, queer, transgender, and non-binary nursing students may be seen as outsiders and face discrimination in clinical practice placements (learning experiences that occur in hospitals and clinics). This study seeks to understand how neurodiverse nursing students experience clinical practice placements and how different identities shape these experiences. Undergraduate nursing students will be recruited from two British Columbian nursing programs. Recruitment will seek students with different identities, considering gender, racialization, age, disability, and year in program. Each participant will be interviewed and encouraged to share their stories of learning in clinical practice placements. Interviews and data analysis will be guided by critical narrative inquiry, which situates each participant's story within the social and cultural environments they live within. Data from interviews will be analyzed for reoccurring themes within and between the stories told. After data analysis, participants will be invited to review the findings and work with the research team to develop creative knowledge translation materials that will be used to share their stories and highlight neurodiversity in nursing education. Additionally, strategies drawn from participant's stories will inform the development of practical learning resources and policy recommendations for nursing programs to create more inclusive clinical practice placements.