The COVID-19 pandemic experiences of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (PWIDD) through a nursing lens: Global Perspectives

The COVID-19 pandemic had significant impacts on the lives of PWIDD globally (Doody & Keenan, 2021). This study explored life experiences of PWIDD from the perspective of nurses in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK. This study aimed to conduct international research to ascertain the experiences of PWIDD one year into the Covid 19 pandemic, as observed by nurses.An online 52-item questionnaire adapted from a study by Desroches et al (2021) was completed by 369 nurses across three continents between March and May 2021. Descriptive statistics were used to rank the challenges in providing nursing care for PWIDD. Manifest content analysis was applied to open-ended responses. Ethical approval was granted for the study by the Institutional Ethics Review Board at one of the coauthor’s educational establishments. Quantitative results revealed many pandemic issues for PWIDD, including limitations to, socialisation with family/friends, day programming/educational activities and also challenges to ensuring sufficient staffing to provide adequate nursing care. Qualitative content analysis of open-ended survey responses revealed issues relating to accessing healthcare and also adapting to and understanding rapidly changing public health guidelines. This study reveals that the pandemic exposed the health inequalities experienced by PWIDD is a global phenomenon. Access to care for PWIDD in health and social care settings were further impaired by the pandemic. The importance of having high quality nursing care and meaningful activity and socialization for overall well being of PWIDD during the pandemic was evident in the study's findings. This study benefited significantly from an intercontinental collaboration made possible due to great advances in virtual communication during the pandemic resulting in the potential development of a global nursing research collaboratory to research issues relating to nursing care needs of PWIDD