Students with Disabilities

Services for Individuals with Disabilities

Equal Educational Opportunity

The Cattaraugus-Allegany Career and Technical Centers located at Belmont, Ellicottville, and Olean do not discriminate on the basis of age, color, creed, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race or gender in the educational programs and activities which they operate. All three Career and Technical Education Centers are accessible to the handicapped.

All applicants accepted into the BOCES Practical Nursing Program must be able to meet the Technical Standards. These Technical Standards are discipline specific essentials critical for the safe and reasonable practice of nursing. The intent of these standards is to inform prospective students of the attributes, characteristics, and abilities essential to practice nursing. The applicant must possess the essential skills and abilities to successfully complete the requirements of the curriculum either with or without reasonable accommodations for any disabilities the individual may have. If the student’s health changes during the program, so that the essential skills and abilities cannot be met with or without reasonable accommodations, the student will be withdrawn from the nursing program. The nursing faculty reserves the right at any time to require an additional medical examination at the student’s expense in order to assist with the evaluation of the student’s ability to meet the essential skills and abilities.

The essential skills and abilities for the nursing program are categorized in the following Technical Standards

Sensory/Observational Skills: The applicant must be able to observe a patient accurately at a distance and close at hand. Observation necessitates the functional use of all the senses.

Communication: The applicant must be able to speak, to hear, and to observe patients in order to elicit information, describe changes in mood, activity and posture, and perceive nonverbal communications. An applicant must be able to communicate effectively with patients and all members of the health care team. Communication includes, listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Motor Skills: Applicants must have sufficient motor skills to gain access to clients in a variety of care settings and to manipulate and utilize the equipment central to the assessment, general and emergency treatment of patients receiving nursing care. Such actions require coordination of both gross and fine muscular movements, equilibrium and functional use of the senses of touch and vision.

Intellectual-Conceptual, Integrative, and Quantitative Abilities: These abilities include measurement, calculation, reasoning, analysis, and evaluation. Problem solving, the critical skill demanded of nurses, requires all of these abilities. In addition, the applicant should be able to comprehend three-dimensional relationships and to understand the spatial relations of structures.

Behavioral/Social Skills and Professionalism: An applicant must possess the emotional health required for utilization of his/her intellectual abilities. The exercise of good judgment, the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to the care of patients, and the development of effective relationships with patients are essential skills for nurses. Applicants must be able to tolerate physically taxing workloads and to function effectively under stress. They must be able to adapt to changing environments, to display flexibility, and to learn to function in the face of the uncertainties inherent in the clinical problems of many patients. Concern for others, integrity, interpersonal skills, interest, and motivation are all personal qualities necessary for the practice of nursing.

Environmental: All applicants must interact with diverse populations of all ages with a range of acute and chronic conditions. Applicants must be able to tolerate frequent exposure to communicable diseases, toxic substances, radiation, medicinal preparations, hostile individuals, conditions common to the health care environment.

Request for Reasonable Accommodation

Medical documentation from provider (psychological, medical and/or educational) must be submitted to the Nursing Office. Documentation must reflect the student’s present level of functioning with respect to the major life activity affected by the disability. Diagnostic information must include specific recommendations as well as the rationale for each. The cost of obtaining professional documentation is the sole responsibility of the student. Reasonable clinical and classroom accommodation will be offered providing such accommodation does not alter the fundamental nature of the nursing program, jeopardize the health and safety of others, or cause undue cost or hardship for BOCES or the affiliated clinical agencies. The use of an intermediary that in effect requires a student to rely on someone else’s power of selection and observation will not be permitted.