Promoting Cognitive Diversity, Inclusion & Health Equity through Faculty Development
Overall Purpose: The overall purpose of this presentation is to share an effort by a school of nursing to promote inclusion, cognitive diversity, and health equity as core individual and institutional values. The specific goal of this project was 2-pronged. Through faculty development there is the opportunity to establish best practices for supporting student success for those who have been underserved and underrepresented. Further, there is the opportunity to design curricula that shape healthcare professionals who actively seek social justice and health equity in their practice.
Rationale/Background: Recent calls for workforce diversity and health equity have prompted academic health centers to scrutinize health professions education. Academic health centers struggle with how to support underserved students entering health professions as well as how to create curricula that prepare healthcare providers to promote health equity. A growing body of interdisciplinary literature suggests that current practices are not adequate to meet the needs of underserved students (Kossman, 2009).
Brief description of undertaking or best practice: In 2014, the authors created a faculty development series that included self-directed learning modules and face to face workshops. Through various exemplars and topics we created a culture that encouraged discussions and questions about lived experiences related to stereotype threat, micro-aggressions, internalized dominance and oppression, educational and health disparities and how these intersect in the presence of inequity. Faculty learned and shared resources for better understanding the nature of inequity and how to support students. The workshops used teaching techniques that include creating group expectations for developing and maintaining a confidential safe learning environment, learning through storytelling and co-participation, and use of expert speakers. The workshops were designed to model best-practices in teaching and learning like flipped classrooms, active learning, and interdisciplinary education.
Outcomes achieved/documented: Outcome data indicated that faculty who often desire, but sometimes struggle to meet the needs of their students experienced increased knowledge about inclusion and equity issues, that a safe learning environment helped in exploring course concepts, and that the workshop has deepened faculty commitment to serving diverse and underserved students. Qualitative data were themed into three categories: 1) Benefits such as: “I was encouraged by the sharing of personal stories by the leaders and participants. It helps to recognize other places in my life where I can improve my interactions with others and promote a place where everyone feels they belong”; 2) Recommendations: “Continue to present content in a safe environment”; and 3) Application:I will “Take the time for learners to have similar conversations we were able to have”.
Conclusions for educational practices: It is through faculty development workshops like these that nurse educators can establish and disseminate best practices for supporting student success and promoting health equity. This school of nursing is interested in pooling creative thoughts about best practices to build a stronger nursing faculty community that can collectively contribute to mitigating attrition of high-risk students and to create healthcare providers who will lead the way toward health equity.