Loyola University 2024 Recipient

About the School

The Loyola University Chicago Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing (MNSON) has dedicated resources, time, and energy to strengthen inclusive excellence – a call to address diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-racism as critical building blocks to achieving and maintaining excellence. They have created lasting changes in the MNSON that have influenced across all areas of the school, from students to staff, faculty, and community. The following programming, initiatives, and projects articulate the scope of impact and commitment to inclusive excellence.

Programs and Initiatives

The MNSON and Loyola University have dedicated resources allocated to Inclusive Excellence and includes:

  • MNSON Inclusive Excellence Task Force
    Created in 2020 to better understand the school’s culture and to make changes that ensured equity, inclusion, and belonging within our community. The task force includes all faculty, staff, and students who are interested in moving inclusive excellence efforts forward.
     
  • Inaugural Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence
    In 2021, the MNSON hired for this position, which includes 75% release time dedicated to leading inclusive excellence efforts. This is a significant amount of release time, which is equivalent to the release time dedicated to academic affairs and demonstrates the commitment of MNSON resources to this effort. The Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence reports to the Dean and leads implementation of vision and strategy for supporting MNSON commitment to inclusive excellence. 
     
  • Revised Mission, Vision and Core Values and Strengthened Website
    Revised MNSON's Mission in 2022 to strengthen inclusive excellence and created an Inclusive Excellence web page, which is dedicated to Inclusive Excellence resources and policy statements.
     
  • 5-Year Inclusive Excellence Strategic Plan
    The Inclusive Excellence Task Force created a five-year strategic plan that synchronizes with the school and university’s broader strategic plans. Faculty and staff conducted ecosystem scans of the school, university, and peer institutions to better understand the work currently taking place in the school and what it would take to fully have an inclusively excellent community. They constructed initiatives, goals, and metrics for success. The strategic plan will be implemented starting in Fall 2024.
     
  • Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
    Loyola University created an Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in 2021, and hired an Inaugural Vice President for Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The MNSON works closely with that office and has received awards and funding from that office (see below).
     
  • Recruitment, Retention, and Development of Diverse Students, Faculty, and Staff CARE Pathway to the BSN
    MNSON created the CARE (Collaboration, Access, Resources, and Excellence) Pathway for students in our four-year BSN degree who identify as students of color. Increasing nursing student diversity is one step toward meeting the goal of a more diverse nursing workforce, reflective of the communities served. The CARE Pathway to the BSN is a HRSA-funded evidence-based program to create a sense of belonging and promote success. The program provides comprehensive support through the duration of the BSN and seeks to create a culture of inclusive excellence. The program includes financial support, peer, faculty, and alumni mentoring, tailored strategies based on social determinants of education, and student success seminars. The CARE Pathway to the BSN was launched in July 2021, with a $2.2 million Nursing Workforce Diversity grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Since that time, the CARE Pathway has received over $5 million from additional grants and donor funding, MNSON's initial cohort of 12 students graduated from the BSN program in May 2024. Today, 60 students are enrolled in the CARE Pathway.
     
  • Received Catalyst Award
    In 2023, the MNSON received the Catalyst Award from the Loyola University Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The Catalyst Award recognizes a team who has developed a program or made a change in policy, procedure or practices that reduces barriers and/or increases a sense of belonging for faculty, staff, or students at Loyola University Chicago.
     
  • Faculty and Staff Search Committee
    Over the last three years, inclusive excellence has been incorporated into all search committee processes. Each applicant for faculty, staff, and administrative positions is required to provide an inclusive excellence statement, which covers previous, current, and future inclusive excellence work that the applicant has, is, or will engage with if hired. Applicants are also required to meet with the Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence to learn more about the work of Inclusive Excellence and expectations of new community members. Lastly, new faculty attend a faculty orientation session where Inclusive Excellence is a topic of discussion in their first semester. 
     
  • Staff Inclusion in Shared Governance
    In the Spring of 2023, the Inclusive Excellence Task Force encouraged the school to engage in conversation on staff member inclusion in the shared governance structure. Since that initial conversation, a smaller task force has been formed, engaged in data collection, and put forth by-law changes to support the inclusion of staff. As an integral constituency responsible for the day-to-day operations of the school, staff members bring a wealth of education, knowledge, and experience to the table. It is crucial to afford full-time staff the opportunity to take the lead in discussions and decisions pertaining to MNSON's goals and strategies.
     
  • Inclusive Excellence within the Curriculum and Teaching Practices Inclusive Excellence Policies
    One initiative that MNSON has made significant progress in over the last 24 months is educating on and creating change around gender inclusion in the classroom space. In Spring 2022, the Academic Council, the shared governance body of the school, passed a policy that stated that faculty members will use the name and/or personal pronouns that students use and provided resources for students to utilize the preferred name policy. In a recent survey, almost all faculty who responded noted that they now share their pronouns with students, and they provide an opportunity for students to share their pronouns in class as well. This is a first step toward gender inclusion and creating more inclusive classroom spaces.

Curriculum and Teaching Activities

Inclusive Excellence in Clinical Rotations
Over half of MNSON's 636 students have clinical rotations located in HRSA-designated Medically Underserved Areas. Two examples:

  1. For over 20 years, MNSON has operated the Loyola School-Based Health Center (SBHC) at Proviso East High School in Maywood. The SBHC is located in a federally designated medically underserved area with a racially diverse population (44% Black; 52% Latinx). Fifty-five percent of the 1600 students are low income and the entire school population is eligible for free breakfast and lunch. The SBHC offers a full range of primary health care, nutrition, and mental health services tailored to the needs of adolescents and their families enrolled in Proviso East High School, Proviso West High Undergraduate and graduate students complete clinical rotations at the SBHC.
     
  2. Pine Ridge Community Nursing Immersion - This program is a cultural immersion on the Pine Ridge Reservation with a focus on health issues, primary care services, and the impact of culture and environment on the health of the Pine Ridge Community. The experience is shaped by four pillars: build community, deepen faith, live simply, do justice. Students and staff spend the week exploring these pillars in the context of an immersion experience. Read more here. Read more here about a clinical rotation at a medical respite center.

Additional Curriculum and Teaching Activities:

  • Poverty Simulation
  • Inclusive Excellence Nursing Student Council
  • Minority Student Panel
  • Student of Color Welcome Social
  • Inclusive Syllabus Review Sessions
  • AACN Faculty Scholars Grant to create a DEI Toolkit for Simulation, and
  • Re-writing technical standards to be more inclusive of students with disabilities

Collaboration with Campus or Community

  • Inclusive Excellence Day
    The MNSON held its inaugural Inclusive Excellence Day in Fall 2023. The theme of the day was “Growth, Community, Action” and reflected three aspects of doing equity-based work. The topics included: Proactive Interventions for Vulnerable Children and Their Families with a Schema of Toxic Stress; Equity at the intersection of Jesuit values and inclusive excellence; Active Bystander Intervention Training: An attendee workshop; Spoken Word Poetry: The need for critical narrative pedagogy in nursing education; and Providing affirming care for the LGBTQIA+ community. Speakers represented diverse viewpoints and represented perspectives that are not always centered in nursing conversations. Specifically, a majority of the speakers were people of color and/or queer identifying. This speaks to challenging white-centered and cisheteronormative narratives in nursing education. The program was attended by 60 participants from MNSON and other Chicagoland schools and health agencies. 
     
  • Art-Based Events
    During the Spring 2023 semester, MNSON faculty, staff, and students spent time together delving into big questions about community, values, relationships, and other issues related to diversity, equity, social injustice, power, and oppression. They did this through exploring famous artworks and taking a tour of the Museum of Contemporary Art.- Chicago. The gatherings were a successful attempt at providing an innovative way to discuss important issues related to building a stronger academic community, but also to bridge that knowledge into thinking about how to best serve marginalized populations through their work as nurses and nurse educators. The conversations have been an opportunity for the MNSON community members to learn about each other, their similarities and differences, and to discuss what allows people to work well together.
     
  • Annual Learning Series
    Each year a learning series is provided by the Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence.  The Learning Series typically includes 3-4 book clubs and 3-4 lectures. Topics are typically chosen based on conversations that are happening in the school and are relevant to the community. Special topics that are related to major social issues and cultural conversations are also considered.
    • Book Clubs - Themes included race and racism, transphobia, disability, and fatphobia/sizeism. Books range from academic texts to memoirs. Physical and audiobooks are purchased from local minority-owned bookstores so that money returns to the community. Each book club has approximately 8-10 attendees.
    • Lecture Series - Paired with the book clubs are a series of lectures that help support the learning that takes place during the book club series. This provides additional opportunities for the community to engage in learning if they cannot commit to long-term activities. Lectures are provided by community members as well as subject-matter experts. Approximately 30-40 people attend each lecture series. All lectures are recorded to provide an opportunity for those unable to attend to view the lectures.
    • Health Equity Research Series - The health equity research series took place between Fall 2022-Spring 2023 to give faculty, staff, and students who are engaged in health equity research an opportunity to share their research with the community. Community members were invited to attend in person or online to learn about topics such as environmental impacts on health, Black maternal health, and nursing students of color sense of belonging. The impact of the nursing school’s efforts.

The Impact

The impact of Inclusive Excellence work on MNSON has been deep. Some of this impact is discussed in the above examples. In addition:

  • The BSN student of color enrollment rose from 45% in 2020 to 51.94% in 2023.
     
  •  Over 485 participants attend Inclusive Excellence events in AY 22-23 up from 249 participants in AY21-22. And had over 50 hours of inclusive excellence programming in AY 22-23 up from 22.5 hours of programming the previous year.
     
  • Received the 2023 Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award, which is a testament to MNSON's national recognition for inclusive excellence.

 In addition to quantitative data, here are some examples using qualitative data. Attendees of the Inclusive Excellence Day conference wrote:

  • I am more aware of social advantages/disadvantages and how they may contribute to stress in children and families. Thus, this will help to design research protocols and interventions that help to improve stress.
     
  • I never realized how important the use of pronouns is and appreciated the data that shows using pronouns reduces suicide attempts by 56%. Will make a concerted effort to do this going forward.
     
  • I also thought a lot about the idea that if students don't feel they belong in a space, they may refrain from reaching out for help, asking clarifying questions in class, etc. because they may feel this confirms that they don't belong. I need to think of ways to make sure all students feel and know that they belong.

Attendees from Arts-Based programming reflected on their experience:

  • This was such a creative idea that helped get us out of our comfort zone and try something new. I felt it gave us a chance to learn and grow in a new way and build those connections with others in the school. Such an incredible event!
     
  • I loved coming together as students, faculty and staff to talk about something that brought us together and how we can relate it to our work and make a difference for others.

Two students described how the CARE Pathway has impacted them:

  • The CARE Pathway gives students a place where they can comfortably be themselves. If they ever feel alienated, Care Pathway is a great opportunity to voice how they feel with others that are in your same situation. I hope that when I get further in my academic career, I can come back and mentor young nursing students.
     
  • The nursing program has helped me grow more comfortable with continuing my education. It’s nice to be surrounded by people who come from similar backgrounds. Since joining the program, I am reminded that I am not alone in my journey to obtaining my BSN, and that as a Latin student, I deserve to be where I am today.