Funding Opportunity
The Commission is pleased to announce it has selected ten extraordinary nursing programs committed to eliminating racism in nursing. Congratulations to the following awardees:
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
The aim of this project is to add an anti-racism component as the fifth component of the Inclusive Excellence Ecosystem for Academic Nursing that assists nursing schools with organizing and guiding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts. This proposed new component will incorporate anti-racist competencies, teaching and learning resources and measurement and assessment tools for nurse educators into the online AACN DEI Faculty Tool Kit, which is used extensively by nursing programs at all levels. Details about the Inclusive Excellence Ecosystem can be found at https://www.aacnnursing.org/diversity-tool-kit.
Carle Health
The aim of this project is to provide anti-racism education and training directed at direct patient care nursing leaders and staff. This activity will utilize a format where a one-hour event is followed by 20 weeks of ongoing microlearnings to reinforce concepts and promote anti-racist conversations and actions among nursing staff. The event and microlearnings will be aimed at frontline leaders. Accompanying these microlearnings will be resources and materials to be utilized by frontline leaders to engage with direct patient care staff on anti-racism topics in an effort to cascade the learning outcomes, reach a broader audience, and remove barriers that prevent open discussions on how both interpersonal biases and systemic racism affect patient care, experience, trust and outcomes.
Children's National Hospital
The aim of this project is to create a national practice standard that supports proper hair care for hospitalized adolescents and children of every ethnicity. In keeping with the goal of health equity and the scientific basis to address these needs, all patients should have the ability to care for their hair in a way that is culturally congruent and informed by the biologically based needs of their hair texture. Using the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) change methodology Hair for You: Moving from Missed Care to Equitable Care Quality Improvement (QI) project will test policies, practices, and processes to create structural change in support of all children and adolescents receive equitable care.
East Carolina University College of Nursing
The aim of this project is to address the lack of African American (AA) males choosing nursing as a major. This program seeks to understand the perceptions of high school AA males, their parents, and school leaders (e.g., teachers and guidance counselors) related to choosing nursing as a profession. This program will also establish a pipeline program, focusing on the academic success and mentoring of AA male high school students. Nationally, the pipeline of AA males in college is slim, as they only make up less than 1% of the college student population. At East Carolina University (ECU) in Greenville, North Carolina (NC), AA males comprise almost 8% of the student body. In ECU’s College of Nursing (CON), 10% of nursing students are AAs; however, only 7% are male. In Greenville, 39.2% of the population is AA; therefore, there is a significant disparity between the number of AA citizens compared to those enrolled in the nursing program.
International Academy of Nurse Editors
The aim of this project is to develop a set of questions that can be used by the reviewers to review papers and ensure that papers adhere to DEI principles. To our knowledge, no such nursing guideline currently exists. Editors, reviewers, researchers, funders and academics are the collective gatekeepers of knowledge dissemination of the professional disciplines. Peer reviewers play an important role in the quality control of publish papers as they possess the expertise to critically examine and critique all aspects of works under consideration. Yet few, if any, peer reviewers or editors have the expertise to detect the subtleties involved in or the training to detect biases, micro/macroaggression, incorrect analyses or discussions in writing that might perpetuate stereotypes and racism, foster attribution biases, or incorrectly generalize research findings to underrepresented or marginalized populations.
Mercy University School of Nursing
The aim of this project is to improve the quality of nursing education through the development of a nurse faculty residency program with the express purpose of facilitating the transition of nurse educators into the role of health equity influencers. This program will prepare nurses and novice nurse educators with the knowledge and skills to have an equity-minded, anti-racist teaching practice. To reverse the trajectory of health disparities impacting newborns up to geriatric populations, it is imperative that nursing programs graduate a workforce that is better equipped to recognize and reconcile factors that perpetuate health disparities and advance health equity. Nurse educators who are trained in identifying and eliminating racist policies and practices that normalize racial disparities are better positioned to graduate nurses prepared to advance health equity.
North Carolina Nurses Association
Through a partnership with the Georgia and South Carolina State Nurses Associations, the aim of this project is to implement a multi-session leadership development program to increase the number of nurses of color prepared and willing to pursue and accept positions of leadership in professional organizations and professional nursing positions. Increased representation within professional associations and the profession in general is needed to help dismantle racism and will require a robust pool of qualified and prepared leaders from historically underrepresented communities. This is particularly important and necessary in southern states, as there is social-science evidence that demonstrates southern states have greater problems with racism than states in other geographic regions.
Norton Sound Health Corporation
The aim of this project is to increase the number of Alaska Native children who are fully vaccinated and attending well child visits by community education, a novel incentive program, and culturally competent staff training. Norton Sound Health Corporation (NSHC) is a tribally owned and operated health care system located in Northwestern Alaska. NSHC serves 20 Alaska Native tribes residing in 16 remote villages (~ 11,000 individuals) accessible solely by airplane. The Alaska Native residents’ remote location, transportation limitation, finances, and history of discrimination are barriers to early childhood access to health care. NSHC has noticed a significant drop-in immunization rate, but the team is focused on improving and meeting the challenges of keeping all children fully vaccinated in such a remote area.
University of Illinois Chicago
The aim of this project is to create innovative virtual reality (VR) simulations tailored for nursing faculty and students to provide a fully immersive and experiential platform to deliver diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training. Virtual simulations are gaining prominence as a method for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training in medical education but are seldom used in nursing programs. Building and implementing custom VR simulations in nursing education represents an innovative strategy to enhance DEI training for nursing faculty and students. These immersive experiences will allow a first-person vantage point in delivering education and care and to racial/ethnic minority groups, along with providing unique insights into the challenges and perspectives faced by students and faculty of color in the academic nursing environment.
University of Portland School of Nursing & Health Innovation
The aim of this project is to establish the psychometric properties of the Curriculum Evaluation Tool for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CET-DEI) and develop a baseline aggregate measurement of curricular DEI. Presently, there is a lack of valid and reliable tools to assess the diversity, equity, and inclusivity of curricula, especially in nursing programs preparing students for the challenges of caring for diverse patient populations. To address this critical gap, two North American universities (University of Portland and University of Saskatchewan) and one polytechnic college (Saskatchewan Polytechnic) with nursing programs will collaboratively pilot the CET-DEI tool. The tool's evaluation of curricular DEI will provide actionable insights for the participating institutions to make informed changes that foster inclusivity and equity.