The Journey to Building a Healthy Work Environment Through Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Within the next thirty years over 50% of Americans will be nonwhite (Janik, 2015). Students, faculty and staff, within schools of nursing, need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population (AACN, 2017; Relf, 2016; Phillips & Malone, 2014). Faculty, staff and students must be willing and adept at communicating with individuals from diverse backgrounds with respect and efficiency. In addition, they must be able to work together successfully in multicultural teams (Breslin, Nuri-Robins, Ash & Kirshling, 2018).

The presenters will share their journey to promote diversity, equity and inclusion from the formation of an Advisory Council, to the creation of a Diversity Statement, the development of a Diversity Strategic Plan and the creation of an Evaluation Plan to track success and progress. This dynamic and interactive podium presentation, with diverse members of the faculty and staff from a School of Nursing (SON), will explore strategies and opportunities for aligning the diversity strategic plan with the school’s overall strategic plan to create a diverse, inclusive and equitable educational and work environment. The presenters will explore the meaning of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, examine issues and challenges related to increasing diversity, equity and inclusion and highlight why Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is so vitally needed for a healthy work and learning environment.

The presenters place special emphasis on three learning objectives 1) Understanding what Diversity, Equity and Inclusion means and how best to apply this knowledge to enhance the workplace climate and culture; 2) Exploring ways to express and promote civility and honor differences; 3) Examining legal policies, compliance obligations, values and pedagogies and how they work together to drive policies, programing and practices.

Using the learning objectives listed above as the backdrop, the presenters will outline their efforts using illustrative examples, discussion, questions and answers. They will explain what Diversity and Inclusion means through its newly developed diversity mission statement and demonstrate innovative strategies used to reform culture and promote civility amid diverse beliefs and values. The critical role of leadership both within the school as well as at the university level for the alignment of strategic commitment and the supporting resource requirements will also be explored. In addition, the presenters will discuss the important opportunities and challenges it faced as learning lessons for others. The audience will gain valuable information to inform their programs and progress as they journey toward building a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion.