Exhibiting lived experiences of disability in a hospital workplace: A qualitative evaluation

Journal article


Worthington, N. and Grainger, C. 2024. Exhibiting lived experiences of disability in a hospital workplace: A qualitative evaluation. Disability and Health Journal.
AuthorsWorthington, N. and Grainger, C.
Abstract

Background: Beyond the Stigma (BTS) was an exhibition of stories about staff with physical and hidden impairments at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham, UK.

Objective: Evaluative research aimed to examine BTS’s long-term impact on participants who publicly shared lived experiences of disability in their hospital workplace. It also sought to discover how arts-based interventions can effectively identify and promote nuanced disability understandings and the wellbeing of disabled people working in healthcare.

Methods: Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) interviews were conducted with six hospital staff. Transcripts were analyzed in depth.

Results: Three superordinate themes emerged from the data, Process of Hesitancy and Comfort, Perceptions of Impact and Contribution, and Journeying with Disability Understandings. These captured personal narratives of how it felt to disclose impairment and perceptions of the project’s impact. Long-term benefits of taking part in BTS were identified as increased self-confidence, openness, self-acceptance, and empowerment. Shifts in participants’ personal disability views pointed to improved quality of life inside and outside the workplace through new awareness of diverse and shared experiences, new ease with disability definitions, language, self-identity, and community participation.

Conclusion: Study findings exposed levels of risk, resilience, and compromise associated with sharing personal experiences of disability, and how these can be managed effectively in the workplace. BTS offers a model for health promotion and community participation across disabled and non-disabled communities that can be repeated and adapted to support employment strategies, shift understandings, and promote notions of disability gain and disability pride across healthcare settings.

KeywordsDisability; Arts and health; Lived experience; Interpretative phenomenological analysis; Wellbing; Employment; Identity; Health promotion; Healthcare; Community participation; Hidden impairment; Long-term health conditions; Disability disclosure
Year2024
JournalDisability and Health Journal
PublisherElsevier
ISSN1936-6574
Publication process dates
Accepted14 Nov 2024
Deposited14 Nov 2024
Accepted author manuscript
License
File Access Level
Restricted
Output statusIn press
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https://repository.canterbury.ac.uk/item/999q3/exhibiting-lived-experiences-of-disability-in-a-hospital-workplace-a-qualitative-evaluation

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