Uni place denied cause of disability!

mynameistallulah

Take_it_like_a_man,_sonny wrote: »

What an absolute crass comment. I am currently off sick, and am going through OH on a return to work. I know myself that certain things pertaining to my Job I cannot do from now on, but it does not stop me from taking a full part of the team. there are things I can do, in my restricted capacity, that are more suited to my skills. My team have be terrific,a nd leave documents and reviews for when I come in at the moment.

As for the future, there will be adjustmentsa that have to be made, and they are in progress, just that my relocation and that m,ay not occur now, though a redeployment across the company will be forthcoming.

Oh, and I have only been with them for 4 months when the incident occured.

The problem today, is that some people are know alls. me too, and I may look at you stuipid at work, because I cannot change the paper in the printer. Just becasue I do not look disabled, does not mean to say I am not. The diference with me and all the others who have linits, is we know our limits. Some people do not!

An ODP is not a role where other people can pick up the slack for someone when they cannot fulfil their role. They have a specific role within a team, and others are far too busy doing their own jobs to compensate for an ineffective ODP, it simply does not work like that.

I have no idea what relevance your final paragraph has?

MightyB_2

The question here seems to be one of reasonable adjustments, both for the course and the long term career. It isn't appropriate for an ODP to do no lifting as this is part of the core requirements of the role - to excuse someone from this task isn't reasonable for the job.

juno

The uni cannot discriminate against applicants, so they won't have taken the disability into account when making the offer. That's not the uni's fault and is partly why they have occupational health assessments.

Really, the only people here who might be at fault are the foundation course provider, but again they might be limited in that they don't want to be accused of discrimination. So they might say it was up to your daughter to research the role of the ODP and see that it involves lifting, and then for her to realise it's unsuitable. I don't think that's an unreasonable expectation, as surely your daughter did some research before applying. If your daughter had been rejected for not having enough work experience, would you be saying it was up to the uni to tell her? No, probably not.

brook2jack

soolin wrote: »

There are plenty of jobs within an NHS environment that don't require lifting or heavy work, I agree with the above posters that maybe DIL needs to re asses where her talents can be best used.

Anything face to face like the pyschology, brereavement work etc, counselling maybe even podiatry or opthalmology/dental etc (although best to check out what sort of positions practitioners tend to be in for long periods in case even kneeling or bending might become an issue)

The number one reason for people stopping dental jobs is back problems. The difficulty with many of these jobs is even in healthy people with no mobility /health issues, the physical stresses and strains of the job will give many permanent health problems such as back problems, arthritis, rsi, carpal tunnel syndrome, mental health problems. If you start the job already compromised ie you have osteoporosis you are virtually guaranteed to develop problems faster and more severe than if you tailored your job to protecting your health.

Stopping your DIL doing the course is merely protecting her from the damage the job will do even to people who have no health problems at the moment. This is the essential part of researching jobs is not only would you enjoy doing it , but are you suitable for it in terms of temperament, intellect and health.

There are several areas of employment where the needs of the job outweigh , in some cases , the rights of the employee eg there are many healthcare jobs hepatitis b carriers / HIV positive people cannot carry out, colourblind people cannot become pilots etc etc

onthecase

OK an update.

DIL went again to the Uni as requested, met with OH and disability co-ordinator.

They put her in a mock up role as if she was doing the ODP job and had her lifting, moving medical lights etc, which she admitted she found difficult.

They have said they may re-consider her for the March intake if she has another assessment, but cannot guarantee her they will accept her. They have suggested she try a couple of other courses which look promising, but she doesn't know if they are full now for the September intake. We'll look into that.

I think she has come to the conclusion that the role of an ODP will be too demanding for her both now, and certainly in the future.

Just to point out to, she did thoroughly research the job and knew there would be lifting, but she thought she would be able to manage it. To reiterate, she did declare her disability at every level and no one said it would be a problem. It's easy to say she should have researched the job better - without actually doing the job itself how could you possibly know all the in's and out's and the degree of physical strength needed? With most jobs you don't know what they are really like until you are actually doing them!

Anyway, she is now re-considering her position, probably still in the health service, but in a non-physical role.

It has been a blow to her, but she'll cope, as she always has, without complaining or feeling sorry for herself.

Thank you to all who have given positive advice, it is appreciated.

morledge142

i was in a similar situation - 11/2 years into a nursing course had car accident and mobility issues/use of hands.

was gutted to finish that but accept it is too physical a role now and having already spend that time in college on theory and in practise on placement - i know what a demanding job it is and on me and other fellow colleagues.

someone also pointed out it is not just if something happens to you but you cause something to happen to a feloow patient so probably wouldn't get insured anyway. as you are a risk.

i have been looking on ou at psychology or a social care degree. there is an open degree where you can credit transfer your exisiting qualifications then that helps towards a degree.

not sure where i wil end up but its a start so little steps and see how that goes.

i wish her well.

most people in nhs are on sick as you mentioned but were caused on the job so does not make sense to take on existing staff as already mentioned. they are very phsycially demnading jobs despoite all the manual handling training and equipment supposedly in place.

kazzah60

to be honest I think it is MUCH better that this has been dealt with PRIOR to your DIL taking up her place
my son has a physical disability ( partially paralysed arm) which he declared on his OH form for his NHS funded Uni course

NO assessment was requested or carried out by OH
NO information about his disability was passed onto his clinical placement tutor
he managed perfectly well with minor adjustments ( standing on the opposite side of the bed to treat patients) which his tutor observed

then one day he was asked to swap sides of the bed- he explained he couldn't because of his disability and the proverbial hit the fan.

he was publicly villified by the placement tutor and dragged over the coals by the head of the school - he was bullied and met with dreadful discrimination ( we recorded one of his meetings with the tutor) removed from clinical practice until a risk assessment was carried out ( which he was perfectly happy about) and accused of not declaring his disability to the University - despite them having received a copy of his DSA assessment and his OH form

This resulted in his losing all of his confidence and hating his placement and failing his 2nd year exams - he is currently home having taken time out of the course and I am not sure he will go back in September

The University has NOT behaved appropriately in my sons case - their systems let him down badly and when this was discovered he was subjected to vile comments and threats to about not being allowed to practice in his chosen field

The risk assessment came back fine
the Disability Assessment result was that the reasonable adjustment that needed to be made was that my son stand on the opposite side of the bed to treat the patient ( which he had been doing) and the Tutor has been down on him since.

so - my comment to the OP would be - well done the University and OH for pointing this out to her BEFORE her confidence was stolen completely and she ended up with depression like my son has.

jennie-jack

i think it is standard. all courses like these that are manual like nurses and midwifery all say place is given subject to occupational health clearance. your dil wouldnt be safe doing her job so she doesnt get a place. it sucks but better now that 3 years funded training and then she cant do the job or hurts herself more in the long run.

jenhug

my husband is planning on going to uni to train as a radiographer. Before he even applies for a place he was told to apply for work experience at the local hospital, which was duly arranged and he spent 2 days observing the job.

I am quite surprised to hear this is not the case for your DIL.

I would suggest perhaps she decides on an area she is interested in (maybe pharmacy??) and contacts HR at the hospital and discuss the possibility of work experience with them. At least then if they say her disability is an issue she will be able to say whether she thinks she will be able to cope in that role?