Introduction It is predicted that worldwide, there are over one billion people who live with one sort of disability or another. The objective of this study was to determine the conditions and the problems faced by disabled health care professionals working in a training and research hospital.

Methods The method is a cross-sectional and definitive study. The population of study was comprised of 908 health care workers in a training and research hospital in Mugla, Turkey. A list was obtained from the human resources department of the hospital management and 323 people (accessibility rate 35.5%) agreed to participate in a survey to determine disability. A brief set of questions prepared by the Washington Disability Statistics Group was implemented. The set results defined 63 people as being disabled (19.5%).

Result The findings indicated that among the disabled health care workers, 44.5% were older (above the age of 40), 65.5% were females, 60.3% had a educational status of university or less, 38.1% were doctors, and 52.4% worked in the clinical sciences. 13.0% of the health care workers had cognitive impairment. 15.9% suffered from cardiac or circulatory ailments, 85.7% had complained of fatigue, and 73.0% had muscular-joint pains. In addition, 77.8% of the health care workers indicated that they had difficulties in commutes to and from the hospital in terms of the routes and the means of transport available. 65.1% claimed they found the breaks to be insufficient, 58.7% said they were victims of mobbing, 57.1% stated they desired to work part-time, and 55.6% indicated they worked in positions which did not necessitate any skill sets.

Discussion It appears disabled health care professionals face a number of negativities. A common set of definitions and a disability detection form should be established and prepared in order to enable the possibility of comparing results on an international basis.