Nurse unable to use lifts - is it a disability?

[Confusedandfrightened]

I’m looking for advice in case anyone else has ever experienced the same thing or knows if I have any chance in the future? I just had an interview for this Thursday cancelled for a job working on a single floor ward. I made them aware under the two ticks that my lift phobia was classed as a disability as it affected my day to day life as a nurse. They thanked me for letting them know on my application when they called to confirm the face to face interview but now it’s been cancelled as “using a lift is an integral part of being a nurse and there isn’t always a colleague available to take your place to transport a patient to the main hospital”. I was going back to clinical nursing after 11 years in management so still have my pin. Now I don’t know what I’m going to be able to do for my work?

My dm has a phobia of lifts and, although I’m not sure whether it would be classed as a disability, it has certainly affected her life a lot. She rushed me to hospital when I went into early labour and she wheeled me into the lift then ran round the building trying to find the stairs up. I couldn’t get out of the lift, ended up having the doors close on me, lift went back down and opened again and a random, poor bloke ended up wheeling me to the delivery ward. She’s forever talking about how guilty she feels about that but she’s tried cbt, hypnotherapy etc and it’s no better at all. I think a lot of people seem to think that just because they don’t really like lifts/ planes/ heights etc then anyone else is just doing it to make a scene.

"The role was on a nicu so most interventions and X-rays etc come to the ward, it’s only really for surgery that babies would leave the unit for."

I've worked in a NICU and this isn't always true, I'm afraid. Have you thought about how the babies get to NICU in the first place? Is the maternity unit in the same floor as the NICU? What about the theatres where C-Sections are performed? Do babies have surgery at the hospital? If so, where? If not, how/where do they get transported to? When they leave NICU, is NICU on the ground floor? In most NICUs, the parents must be accompanied to the car with their baby on discharge. You can't expect them to take the stairs because you have a lift phobia.

My son has dog phobia . He has had cbt which has helped him enormously . It hasn’t cured him but made life more bearable.

Stop thank you for understanding, when I was in labour I walked down the stairs and the midwife thought I was mad - even funnier was when I walked back up them hours later after having an epidural
Lougie I do completely understand which is why when they called me back today as they had reconsidered and wanted to chat things through, I turned them down politely as I’ve realised that I am no longer suited it this type of nursing. It doesn’t mean that I can’t use my skills and experience elsewhere though!

Absolutely! I do understand your frustration, really. I suffer from chronic migraines, some sort of chronic fatigue type thing that rears its head periodically whenever I over extend myself by doing blocks of night shifts, etc., and inappropriate sinus tachycardia (I'm a real catch, aren't I? ).

I've had to accept that this rules me out of doing the high octane work such as A&E, theatres, etc., because I can't do the shifts and unpredictable hours anymore. I used to be a recovery nurse years ago, but couldn't do the on-calls now. I work in an ICU, and they've been very good to me in the past, taking me off nights, but the reality of ICU work is that it's 50-60% night shifts, because sick patients don't get better at night. So it's not very sustainable to have a nurse who can't work nights. I'm lucky now that I have a job which is 9-5 Mon-Fri. I could do bank shifts in ICU when they are short staffed if I wanted to, but tbh I can't cope with standing still for too long because of the IST, so I don't.

My job isn't 9-5 I'm lucky that my job is 9-3 - I can do it between school runs, and still in ICU, in the office. It's very niche, and I'm very lucky.

Lougle that sounds amazing (work not health!) I’m hoping to either go into teaching or quality and compliance not sure yet!!

Good luck . I'm in audit, which is nice. I get to keep my interest in the clinical area, but don't have the strain of the clinical work.

I think in your situation you would need to demonstrate that your phobia has a substantial adverse effect on your daily life. If you can do this, you would be covered by the Equality Act 2010. However, whilst there is nothing to stop a phobia being covered by the EA, there isn’t anything specifically written in there so it would be a bit of a grey area open to interpretation. I think you’d probably need to see what prescedent an Employement Tribunal set in your/similar situation.

If your (potential) employer did agree you were covered, then they would need to do everything possible to make a reasonable (again, subjective) adjustment to accommodate you. Ultimately I would imagine that the (admittedly unlikely) risk of a baby dying as a result of him or her needing to be transferred somewhere and the only way possible involved a lift with the only person (you) available unable to take him or her would be one they don’t to take.

FuzzyOwl I disagree with your conclusion, as I think that the wider ramifications of the situation would also be relevant. In an ITU setting, nurses must know their patients intimately. They can't just "swap" without an extensive handover of patient care, relevant changes in physiological parameters, drugs administered, upcoming care planned, etc. So if an urgent situation arose that required a lift to be used, it would cause a great deal of difficulty and possibly danger, to have a delay because of needing to swap patients due to a nurse being unable to participate.

Lougle I said unlikely because the OP has said the job she applied for is in a single story building, so there is no upstairs and presumably no lift at all in the building she would be working in.

Not so, FluffyOwl. The OP said "I just had an interview for this Thursday cancelled for a job working on a single floor ward." The ward is on one level, but it's highly unlikely that a neonatal critical care facility of any kind is in a single level building, because there will need to be access to theatres, maternity, post-natal, etc.

Maternity and post natal are all attached through the single storey building, it’s only surgical that’s separate. It’s fine though I’ve made my peace with it now and will move on in a different area. Thanks for all the advice and audit sounds particularly good too lougle

My apologies Lougle I misunderstood the OP writing the ward it was on is a single story building and assumed the building only had one storey to it.

There's no way you can work on a nicu and not use a lift at some point. They made the right decision which is in the patients best interest.

And OP you have made the right decision to make your peace with it and find a suitable role that you will love and be brilliant at without worrying about lifts

The ignorance on this thread is shocking. The definition of a disability under the Equalities Act is
"A disability is any physical or mental impairment that is long term and has a substantial effect on your ability to do day to day activities."
Getting a lift is a day-to-day activity so may be classed as a disability. Phobias of any sort maybe classed as disabilities under the above definition depending on their severity and how they impact the person with the phobia.

@MiniMum97 regardless of whether it is a disability, an employer only has to make any reasonable adjustment, and it isn't reasonable to have a nurse who is unable to take a lift in a NICU, because it could endanger the lives of the patients he/she cares for and hamper the efficient provision of the service.

@Lougle I wasn’t disputing that. It’s the ignorant comments saying it wasn’t a disability I was disputing.

No irony intended but what about PIP assessments for DWP?
Hours are mon to fri 9-5 and often there is the option to work part time.
Depends where you live but some areas it is contracted to be done by NHS so you get pension benefits and band 6 pay scale.

mini thanks for the thoughtful comments, that’s how I was feeling when I first read the comments. I do totally understand that I need to do something else but it was the way that some were responding that had me
egg I applied for several pip roles but they won’t look at child branch nurses just the other three branches which I find happens a lot!
In other news I heard I have another interview - school nurse role woohoooo

That’s great OP ... good luck with the interview.