Inclusion, Diversity & Excellence Achievement (IDEA)

All are welcome here. We really mean it.

The need for a diverse nursing workforce has never been greater.

Not just because patients want caregivers who look like them and speak their language - though that's part it it - but because we understand that you can't reduce health inequities, improve care and patients' health outcomes without a widened view of the world derived through engagement across difference, understanding and humility.

As we teach a new generation of nurses at UVA, we're striving to build a better, more inclusive community with room and respect for all. That means we're transforming our culture in concrete, meaningful ways.

Aspiring to be Anti-Racists

As part of the School's Inclusion, Diversity and Excellence Achievement (IDEA) initiative, we're painstakingly reviewing how we teach health topics about diverse populations in a thorough curricular review. We're building faculty skills to promote inclusive and respectful classroom environments. We're taking a hard look at who and how we recruit by holistically assessing student applicants to give equal weight to their personal and professional experiences and strengths alongside more traditional academic metrics. And we're redoubling our efforts to attract faculty who study topics related to health inequities and come from underrepresented populations.

And we’re asking:

• Who gets to work and learn here?
• How do we want to relate to one another?
• What's the philosophy underlying all that we do?
• And what do we want to be known for?

No one ever grows in still waters. Our sincere hope is to cultivate an environment that openly and honestly celebrates difference and allows room for a rich variation of perspectives, beliefs, experiences and people.

And it’s our conviction that diverse learning environments make for better, more capable, more compassionate nurses. Knowing that the best changes start at home, we’re deepening our commitment to diversity starting in our own back yard first, nurturing a generation of practitioners and scientists who will bring this message forward through their stellar care and research.