Columbia Nursing Diversity Dean Takes Stock, Looks to Future
After more than a year on the job, Vivian Taylor, EdD, associate dean for Diversity and Cultural Affairs, sees her biggest success as helping the faculty, students and staff at Columbia Nursing to think of diversity as a school-wide endeavor. Taylor’s goal is to develop and implement programs and activities that support a school-wide culture of understanding, tolerance, and even a celebration of difference.
“Dean Berkowitz sent a clear message by highlighting diversity and cultural competency in her strategic plan,” says Taylor. “The message that she sent, which I try to deliver every day, is that we all have a responsibility to be self-reflective about our own backgrounds and experiences, and respectful and appreciative of the richness that people with so many different backgrounds bring to our school community and the communities in which we serve.”
Engaging in diversity work takes many forms at Columbia Nursing, from volunteer efforts in the community to lectures on health care for diverse populations to potluck meals that encourage interactions among faculty, students, and staff. Through the Diversity Subcommittee on Community and Education, the Columbia Nursing community collected donations of hats, socks and gloves to give holiday gifts to men at a local homeless shelter. So far, lectures hosted by the diversity committee have included talks on LGBT health and on disparities in mental health care. A school-wide picnic and a potluck staff appreciation day are among the shared meals organized by the diversity committee to foster closer ties among the school community.
Columbia Nursing and other schools educating health professionals need to have high standards for promoting diversity because these institutions are sending graduates out into the world to treat patients from a wide variety of backgrounds, says Taylor. Diversity in the classrooms – both in terms of the students and faculty and in terms of the curriculum covered –are crucial for addressing health disparities and providing culturally appropriate care to patients.
“In order to give great care, we need to be sensitive and cognizant of the various cultures and the people we serve,” Taylor says.
Nursing as a profession has unique challenges in achieving diversity, Taylor says. “We have to start by acknowledging that this profession has a history of being predominately women and predominantly white,” Taylor says. “The demographic is changing as we educate the next generation, and as we work to create a faculty and a curriculum that reflects the array of backgrounds represented by the patients we treat and the communities we serve.”
Taylor still recognizes that there is work to be done. A daylong diversity retreat earlier this year for faculty and staff identified three areas that Taylor wants to address next. First, there’s a need to expose students to people of diverse backgrounds and help elevate their understanding of health disparities. Second, faculty have expressed an interest in knowing more about how to address difficult situations in the classroom that may arise during discussions that touch on issues of diversity or cultural competency. And lastly, Taylor would like to see more opportunities for team building and collaborative practice among people with different backgrounds and different roles at Columbia Nursing.
“The bottom line is we all want to get to a point where we can acknowledge that cultural competency is a work in progress, where we admit we can always improve,” Taylor says. “We want to be in an environment where we are constantly striving to do better.”
While diversity is a clear priority at Columbia Nursing, resources still remain an obstacle to promoting diversity in higher education at other institutions, Taylor says. When budgets get tight, it’s often programs targeting diversity initiatives that are dropped.
"In some situations, there are those who have less of a voice or who have special unmet needs and these individuals are the ones who can get side-lined. Often these are people who are from under-represented groups and/or have a low socio-economic status in our society," Taylor says. "At Columbia Nursing, we want to not only be a voice for the voiceless but to empower those voices to advocate on their own behalf as well."