Nursing students in Gomes', Hinton's, and Crosby's Empathy Building pilot class fall 2024.
November 22, 2024

Trust and Equity in All That We Do

written by: Christine Kueter

The School is more diverse than it's ever been.

"Belonging is a journey we'll always be on."

Melissa Gomes, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and goal four champion

Fall marks the first time the student body has shifted to “majority minority,” with 55 percent of community members hailing from underrepresented backgrounds, and roughly one-third being first-generation college attendees. So now that they’re here, how we keep those students engaged and supported has everything to do with continued success as a premiere destination for diverse nurses.

Deepening students’ sense of belonging is what drove goal champion Melissa Gomes (CERTI-PMHNP ’13), associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, to amplify structures and supports that build that sense of community. Included among those supports is a new undergraduate pilot course, Building Empathy, that meets Wednesday nights for dinner, conversation, and an exercise—in self-care, gratitude, connectivity—that boost students’ sense of belonging.

Students laugh
Students in the BSN program strike a pose at the fall 2024 Nursing and Medicine in Color Community Festival.
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Buttons on a table
Offered each spring and fall, the festival offers a relaxed, low stakes way to come together outside of class and clinicals to eat, get some swag . . .
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Nursing students at a table outside
... learn about students activities and affinity groups, like qRN, the Asian American and Pacific Islander Nursing Student Association . . .
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Nursing students laughing
. . . the Black Student Nurses Alliance, and the Latinx Nursing Student Union, among other groups.
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A game
Gomes, in the foreground, also supports a Building Empathy pilot class, eight weeks of dinner, discussion, and activities to build community across difference. Here, they play an icebreaker game.
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Students in class
The class is small, intimate, and begins with dinner, low-key discussion, and then lessons in well-being, self-care, and belonging.
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A teacher teaching
The Compassionate Care Initiative's assistant director, Hannah Crosby, led a recent class focused on mattering.
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students watercolor painting
Students wrote and painted gratitude cards one recent evening, spring boarding off of an intimate discussion of mattering, acceptance, and belonging.
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By supporting student affinity groups offering ethnic and cultural homes, developing a cadence of events that build togetherness through purpose, casual spaces, and fun, the hope is that concepts of School, family, and home seamlessly collide.

“Belonging is a journey,” Gomes said, “we’ll always be on.”

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Goal 1

A nursing professor in a lab

Transform educational offerings to meet the changing needs of our students, the Commonwealth, and society

In response to new accreditation guidelines and student demands, how assistant professor Dawn Bourne (BSN ’04, MSN ’10, DNP ’16) and colleagues have winnowed the on-Grounds requirements for DNP students in Advanced Health Assessment by more than 50 percent while ensuring students still receive the intimate, hands-on opportunities and mentoring for which the School is known.

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Goal 2

A nurse presents to a group

Co-create and enhance partnerships to improve health and healthcare

Partnerships with local schools and HBCUs. Regular opportunities for faculty members to work as clinicians providing care at community events. Modeling and mentoring students in those spaces, too. How faculty members such as Randy Jones (BSN ’00, MSN ’02, PhD ’05), goal champion and associate dean for partner development and engagement, are showing up in places and spaces where nursing students and faculty haven't previously or typically been. 

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Goal 3

A cookie

Positioning the School as a leader in nursing science, from discovery to translation

The nursing faculty shortage is troubling. How goal champion Jeanne Alhusen, associate dean for nursing research, with her team in the Office for Nursing Research, is creating novel structures, supports, on-ramps, and opportunities for undergraduates, graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and emerging nurse scientists to more deeply engage with and commit to futures in nursing science. "There is no one path into nursing science," says Alhusen, but the "hope is that a spark followed by organized support and engagement keeps them on a research track."

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