Nurse anesthesia students with disabilities: a legal and academic review of potential professional standards.

Establishing suitable and proper program admission criteria that protect both the rights of disabled applicants and professional needs to educate competent practitioners concern every nurse anesthesia educational program. Disabled Americans must be legally protected while ensuring that future nurse anesthetists meet expectations for professional competency To balance these demands, academic programs must establish criteria that define qualifying standards for practice. Such criteria serve the important function of providing notice to prospective applicants, as well as to established practitioners, about minimum professional competencies and behaviors. This paper, based on a presentation, "Special Needs Students--an Attorney's Perspective," to program faculty of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists in Ft Lauderdale, Fla, in February 2005, posits specific language to aid in defining admission criteria that are both inclusive and exclusionary. It seeks to stimulate debate about developing some professional consensus on a matter of continuing importance.