Newly qualified nurse Milda Ambra knew she had badly broken her ankle before she even had a chance to look at it.
She had left work in Yorkshire to meet a friend to go bouldering – a form of rock climbing. After attempting a controlled fall from 3m above the ground, her ankle “shattered” into around 15 pieces.
“It’s clear that the NHS infrastructure just isn’t made to support disabled nurses”
Milda Ambra
Months of recovery and major surgery followed, but the pain remained unbearable.
Despite this, Ms Ambra was determined to continue her role as a mental health nurse working in a children’s community eating disorder team.
Returning to work in a wheelchair, she encountered significant hurdles – experiences that have fuelled her call for greater accessibility in the NHS.
Speaking to Nursing Times, Ms Ambra has shared her journey as a newly qualified nurse navigating work with a disability.
She has set out some of the greatest barriers she has come up against and why she believes the NHS should put accessibility at the forefront of its agenda.
Having started her role on 2 January 2024 and breaking her ankle on 31 January, Ms Ambra had only been working as a registered mental health nurse for a few weeks before her injury.
Nine days after she fell, she underwent surgery. Although the operation was deemed successful, it failed to restore her mobility and left her in chronic pain.
“It’s when I started relearning to walk that it just went downhill,” Ms Ambra told Nursing Times.
“I was in and out of agony. The GP was constantly increasing my pain meds to a point where there was nowhere else they could go.”
Determined to persevere, Ms Ambra set out some of the challenges in adapting to her disability so early in her career.
She said: “I’ve really had to fight to prove that I am capable of my job even though I’m disabled – while figuring out how to be disabled, because it’s new to me.”
Milda Ambra shattered her ankle into 15 pieces in a climbing accident
Throughout her first year using a wheelchair, Ms Ambra faced numerous obstacles.
Her role requires her to cover all of North Yorkshire, but her work has become limited to York due to “completely inaccessible” travel and buildings.
Meanwhile, on returning to work, she described how the lift to her office was out of order for six weeks.
“I was still new to the team, and I couldn’t get up the stairs safely,” noted Ms Ambra.
“So, the option was pretty much just to work in a room downstairs by myself or to work from home. It was just really isolating.”
Even basic infrastructure on the estate where she works posed challenges.
The drop curb leading to her building was frequently blocked, forcing her to struggle onto the curb itself and often at the expense of her physical wellbeing.
“I’ve [only] been able to stay in my job because I have pushed and worked beyond what I should have probably done, beyond what was safe for me,” she said.
The process for approving equipment has also been frustratingly slow, Ms Ambra noted.
It took five months for her trust – which she asked not to name – to greenlight investment in six grab bars to be placed on clinic room doors.
However, this only represents a third of all the doors she may need to access as part of her job.
Although Ms Ambra said that her managers and wider team have been “really supportive” in helping her to get back to work, she highlighted many systemic shortcomings in the NHS.
“If you’re not working with someone with disability, you’re not going to know what’s needed”
Milda Ambra
“It’s clear that the NHS infrastructure just isn’t made to support disabled nurses – at least not [those] visibly with a mobility aid,” she said.
“It feels very much like it’s me versus the NHS, with the fact that I’ve had to adjust myself and be willing to work against things that I probably shouldn’t have to.”
Training opportunities have also presented further challenges. Ms Ambra explained how she had missed out on key training and preceptorship sessions, because they could not accommodate her wheelchair and no alternative arrangements were made.
She said: “There was training that was being offered that was just inaccessible [because] the buildings didn’t have lifts or I couldn’t drive at the time.
“There were no options, and there was just no communication.”
Reflecting on her experiences, Ms Ambra emphasised the need for NHS employers to promote accessible practice “without it having to be asked for”.
“Make accessibility the first step, or make accessibility the primary function,” she argued.
“It feels like the NHS is putting a plaster on it to say [it’s]accessible. It’s a shame because my managers [and] the team all try their best, but they’re only limited to what the NHS and the trusts are willing to fund.”
Casual ableism – behaviours, attitudes and and language that unintentionally discriminate against, or marginalise, people with disabilities – from NHS staff also remains a concern.
Ms Ambra recalls being advised to consider medical retirement less than a year into her career.
“That’s not what I want to do,” she stressed. “I want to be on the wards. I want to be working.”
To combat these attitudes, Ms Ambra advocated for greater consultation with disabled NHS staff.
“If you’re not working with someone with a disability, you’re not going to know what’s needed,” she argued.
“Consulting people with disabilities is quite a basic thing,” she added.
“I think [it is about] putting accessibility first, rather than having to be reactive to it. But if it [means] having to be reactive, [do] that with priority.”
The latest Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) report, published in June, found that 5.7% of the NHS workforce had declared a disability through the electronic staff record – an increase on the previous year.
Despite this increase, Ms Ambra said she had struggled to find fellow disabled nurses working clinically.
“There’s not that many wheelchair users working, and I think it’s just the lack of the NHS’s ability, or willingness, to support them,” she said.
“I feel like I’m the only person with a disability in the whole NHS because there’s just no-one around me that has experienced similar.”
“I feel like I’m getting my life back and just able to actually be a nurse again”
Milda Ambra
The WDES report revealed ongoing disparities faced by disabled NHS staff.
It found that only 52% of disabled staff felt their trust provided equal opportunities for career progression, compared with 58% of non-disabled staff.
In addition, 27% of disabled staff reported feeling pressured to work despite being unwell, compared with 18.5% of their non-disabled colleagues.
On a more positive note, the report found that 74.5% of disabled staff had reported that their employer had made reasonable adjustments to enable them to carry out their work – an increase from 2022 when it was 73%.
However, this still leaves a quarter of disabled staff battling for reasonable adjustments to be implemented, something that resonated with Ms Ambra.
Milda Ambra had her leg amputated in June 2025
She explained that there were many times when she was “looking for other jobs”.
“I remember being sat at work and just wanting to quit and literally just crying at home, [thinking] I don’t know how I’m going to go into work tomorrow.”
It is Ms Ambra’s resilience that keeps her pushing forward, but she said this should not have to be the case.
She added: “I know that other people wouldn’t necessarily be able to do that, and I feel like that’s possibly also why you don’t see that many wheelchair users working in the NHS at all – or, at least, not as nurses or healthcare assistants.”
Ms Ambra’s injury marked the start of a challenging journey, but her resolve to continue working as a nurse remains strong.
After extensive research and medical advice, she opted for a leg amputation on 29 May 2025 – a decision she described as life changing.
Looking ahead, she is eager to resume ward-based work with the help of a prosthetic leg: “Half my career, all of a sudden, was wiped out under my feet within a month, without any support.
“I’m hoping to get a prosthetic in a few weeks or months and, once I can, one of my goals is to be able to work again on the wards.”
The amputation is the latest milestone in her journey navigating being a newly qualified nurse and having her disability.
After the surgery, she said she was so relieved the pain was gone that she cried with happiness for the first time in her life.
Reflecting on where she is now, Ms Ambra said: “I feel like I’m getting my life back and just able to actually be a nurse again.”
