Racism in nursing education presents in multiple ways, including educational disparities for minority students, limited access to administration processes, lack of reporting and poor planning or limited diversity among decision-makers, the Daily Nurse reported Nov. 4.
The Daily Nurse conducted two focus group sessions with nursing faculty and administrators to find actionable steps to reduce racism in nursing education. Here are the 10 action items the group developed:
- Get buy-in from top leadership on recognizing and supporting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
- Incorporate DEI into the institution's strategic plan and create long-term goals, identify necessary resources and outline priorities for sustained change.
- Create a DEI council or committee to review the strategic plan and provide guidance on best practices, challenges and create a plan of action.
- Launch a pilot program before full-scale implementation and get buy-in from faculty, students and administrative staff.
- Assess the academic community to identify current attitudes, behaviors and practices related to racism and DEI.
- Analyze the data from the assessments to identify areas for intervention and use evidence-based approaches to prioritize action.
- Build a dashboard of key performance indicators to track progress and outcomes.
- Implement evidence-based strategies to address deficiencies and prompt the pilot program.
- Monitor and adjust the initiatives as needed.
- Change policies for sustainable practices, including revising hiring practices, curriculum design, student support services and clinical placements.