Prevalence of course content on developmental disabilities in the top-ranked graduate health programs

Abstract

For my thesis, I researched the prevalence of courses and clinical experiences that cover and involve individuals with developmental disabilities in medical schools, physician assistant programs, and master’s in nursing programs in the United States. I created a survey and distributed it to faculty and staff affiliated with the top twenty-five ranked programs of each type listed above. I performed this research because there is a large disparity in the healthcare provided to individuals with developmental disabilities and this can cause individuals with developmental disabilities’ health to suffer greatly or even for their lives to end prematurely. There has been research conducted that proves providing education on developmental disabilities to healthcare professionals during their schooling can improve the quality of healthcare they will deliver to their patients with developmental disabilities. Therefore, I wanted to look deeper into the prevalence of courses covering developmental disabilities in graduate health programs to better understand if future health professionals are receiving this education on developmental disabilities or if there needs to be a better implementation of it.