At the prompting of its student members, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) has been building a community around neurodivergence. Through its Graduate Nursing Student Academy (GNSA) and its student liaison program, it provides opportunities for connection and visibility for neurodiverse students and communicates their value to department heads and healthcare spaces.
Anne Pearson, student services director at AACN, spoke with Associations Now about the genesis of the program, its importance, and its goals. This conversation has been edited for space and clarity.
Associations Now: How did you first become aware of neurodivergence within your association’s community, and what were some of the first steps you took in response?
Pearson: We work with graduate nursing schools across the country. I work specifically with the students, and a huge part of my role is interacting directly, one-on-one, with the students, getting to know them. Our major leadership piece of programming is the liaison program. We share information about the resources we offer, they help give us feedback to improve our resources, and then they have access to a number of leadership opportunities.
One of the first people that I onboarded tracked me down at a conference and asked for a couple minutes of my time to talk about something she was struggling with, which was neurodivergence, being diagnosed with ADHD while in school. It was very clear that she wasn’t alone, that she was scared of divulging her diagnosis because she didn’t want to deal with the stigma, the fear of being seen as lesser-than or unable to do her job as a nurse. But she needed more resources than she was getting, and she didn’t know what to do or how to start that conversation.
We also have a writing opportunity for our liaisons called the Pulse. An individual approached me asking to write about her diagnosis with ADHD, and when we posted it in our community, we had an overwhelming response of other people saying, “Hey, I didn’t know that anyone else was struggling with this. I feel so much less alone.” It all started because of those connections and the trust and then giving students a voice and a platform to be heard.
Associations Now: How did you structure AACN’s neurodivergent community after that?
Pearson: We started with an awareness of the programming that we are building within our liaison group. We developed a neurodivergent work group that is creating resources for students. They asked for a number of things. One was more visibility, so holding a webinar about being neurodivergent in graduate school and what resources might be available to them. Then we pursued testimonials from other students who are also neurodivergent so that they know that those other students exist. And then a space for community to learn more about resources that might be helpful to them, individual as well as systemic.
As we’re building these resources, a big part of what we’re thinking about is how do we actually make sure students know that they exist. We have a bulletin that goes out to all of our GNSA members every month that promotes our webinars and other opportunities, like our writing study groups. That will be one place that we will feature all of these resources as they go live on our website. But we also run a very active social media platform. We’ll use that, and I think we’ll probably end up reaching out to schools as well and sharing it with the deans and the faculty and saying, “Hey, we know that this is tricky for you to navigate as well. If you have students who are struggling and feel alone, please share this resource with them.”
Associations Now: In terms of goals that you have for this group now that it’s sort of emerging and forming, what do you want to see happen as a result of it?
Pearson: I think it’s of the utmost importance to have spaces for everyone to feel like they have access to what they care about. Nurses who are neurodivergent often very much thrive in spaces like the ER where you have to be task-switching and managing multiple overwhelming things at all times. We want to make sure that they don’t lose hope and lose the passion simply because they’re overwhelmed and they’re having trouble getting through their program. And so I think the vision is that by supporting them more effectively, we will be strengthening the nursing workforce. There’s a critical nursing shortage. The more people we can get through their programs, the better.
The other part is simply reducing the stigma of neurodivergence. People’s brains work differently, and we should be trying to create spaces within our associations, within our communities, that enable people to be successful regardless of how they process the world around them. The TV show The Pitt makes the argument we’ve been making: There’s a moment where a doctor is dealing with a patient who has autism and is able to actually interact with the patient and help them, because they themselves are autistic. If we have nurses in those spaces, they’re more effectively going to be able to help the population as a whole.
Associations Now: What would you like to see this community look like a year from now?
Pearson: I think the three things I would really like to see come from the three things that our group has asked for: visibility, community, and resources. I would love for that to be a safe space within the GNSA, for our students to come together and interact with each other within a neurodivergent space where ideally there’s a way for them to join the call anonymously if they don’t want their name or face to be attached to it, and that they do have to sign some sort of privacy agreement before entering so that it is a safe space for everyone coming in—but for them to be able to just sit and chat once a month, once a quarter in a year, and say, “Hey, here’s what I’m struggling with.”
I would love to see that we’ve collected all of these resources from schools that are doing really good jobs supporting their neurodiverse students. And I would love to see those actually up on our website. Then there are webinars and testimonials making it clear that neurodivergent students exist, so that then we can go to the faculty, the deans and staff, and say, “Hey, we have this evidence that these students exist in your spaces. Let’s talk more about how you can support them without feeling overwhelmed. Let’s talk about what resources would be most helpful and how we can help you create that.”
