29 minute read
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Action at Frontier Nursing University
Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech, Ph.D., PMNHP-BC, APRN Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator Chris Turley
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Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been an intentional component of Frontier Nursing University’s goals, initiatives, and planning since 2006. In 2010, the university launched PRIDE (Promoting Recruitment and Retention to Increase Diversity in Nurse-Midwifery and Nurse Practitioner Education), which has since led to the multiple DEI efforts taking place at the University today. Now known as the Diversity Impact Program, PRIDE was specifically intended to raise the level of diversity in student enrollment. In 2010, the enrollment of students of color was 9%. Today, that number has risen to over 27%, and FNU’s DEI efforts have expanded exponentially to include all members and aspects of the FNU community. Leading the university’s DEI efforts is Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer (CDIO) Dr. Paula Alexander-Delpech, Ph.D., PMHNPBC, APRN. Dr. Alexander-Delpech brings a great deal of expertise and experience to the CDIO position, which was created at FNU in 2017. Her other roles at FNU include serving as an Associate Professor, Chair of the President’s Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and Co-Chair of the Faculty, Staff, and Preceptor Development and Retention committee.
Dr. Alexander-Delpech, who was officially named the new CDIO in August, began serving as the Interim CDIO in January. She hit the ground running, ensuring all existing initiatives and programs continued to progress and working with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator Chris Turley to plan the annual Diversity Impact Conference. She has done all this while keeping an eye on the future. The university’s progress since the launch of the Diversity Impact Program is significant but far from over. To help determine the direction of the program moving forward, Dr. Alexander-Delpech is leaning on surveys and data to make informed decisions about which programs are working, which are not, and what new initiatives, if any, need to be implemented.
“I am working diligently with the whole FNU community to determine where we want to take the university as it relates to DEI,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “One of the things that will help me as we move forward is that FNU was identified as one of 50 schools to participate in the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) LAMP (Leading Across Multidimensional Perspectives) survey.”
The survey, which will be open to FNU students, faculty, and staff from November 2022 through February 2023, helps gain insight into FNU’s climate and culture.
“I hope the assessment data collected from students, faculty, and staff will give me valuable information so I can initiate the changes, identify target areas for growth, and most importantly, help us to improve student outcomes,” Dr. AlexanderDelpech said.
Because much of the work in DEI is qualitative rather than quantitative, evaluating the results and identifying common themes is subject to interpretation. To help make the evaluation more objective, Dr. Alexander-Delpech and FNU Director of Institutional Assessment Marilyn Lyons have been selected to participate in a year-long fellowship with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) and Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities (NWCCU) partnership. The Data Equity Fellowship is a 12-month fellowship with expert facilitation to support the successful implementation of data-informed equity initiatives aligned with the institution’s mission and strategic plan, including sustaining and scaling DEI efforts.
“They will teach us how to use the qualitative data and turn it into measurable outcomes to help us make informed decisions,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “It’s all about informed decisions. I don’t want to fall into project-itis, just creating one project after another without understanding the impact. I want us to know how to measure and know as an institution that we are making a difference.”
Dr. Alexander-Delpech acknowledges the great strides the university has made in the past 12 years. She is committed to building upon the foundation that has been laid, making data-driven, evidence-based decisions to forge further advancement in DEI across the university landscape.
“I want to streamline what we are doing so that it is institutional, not departmental,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “We always think about DEI as it pertains to our curriculum or profession, but when people start talking about it in their personal lives, that means people are really making changes. The ripple effect is happening. At FNU, we are ahead of the game. When we talk about DEI work, FNU has surpassed a lot of other universities.”
Following is a closer look with Dr. Alexander-Delpech at a few of the events and initiatives central to the university’s DEI initiatives:
All-Star Presenter Lineup Highlights Diversity Impact Conference 2022
FNU held its 12th annual Diversity Impact Conference on June 28-29. The event, which was free for all attendees, was held virtually for the third consecutive year. The conference’s theme was “Engaging Diverse Voices in Sustained Dialogue to Build Community Trust.” The conference featured an impressive group of speakers and presenters from across the country. The opening day keynote address, “Social Justice in Nursing Education,” was given by Boston University Associate Professor of General Internal Medicine and Director of Faculty Development Angelique Harris, Ph.D., MA. The day two keynote address, “Community Historical Trauma,” was delivered by University of Texas School of Nursing Professor John Lowe, Ph.D., FAAN. Among the many other presentations were two by Clinical Professor at Duke University’s School of Nursing, Brigit Carter, Ph.D., MSN, RN, CCRN, FAAN, and Assistant Clinical Professor at Duke University’s School of Nursing Jacqui McMillian-Bohler, Ph.D., CNM. Together, they presented “Personal Triggers” and “Microaggressions.” FNU alumni Caitlin Hainley, DNP, ARNP-CNM, IBCLC, and Emily Zambrano-Andrews, DNP, ARNPCNM, presented “Building Community: Advancing Accessibility and Affordability
in the Midwifery Model,” based on their experience as co-founders of the Des Moines Midwife Collective. FNU President Susan Stone, CNM, DNSc, FAAN, FACNM, gave a presentation and led a discussion about gun violence in the United States.
One of the conference’s many highlights was a screening of the acclaimed documentary “Apart.” The film features formerly incarcerated mothers jailed for drugrelated charges who overcome alienation and a society that labels them as “felons” to readjust to life with their families. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with three of the women featured in the documentary.
“What conference has a screening of a documentary and then has a session with the stars of the documentary?” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “I was floored by those women,
allowing us to take what they were telling us into our classrooms and our professions.”
“I am proud that FNU makes this a signature event,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech continued. “I am so proud that I am a member of a community that takes this so seriously that this is the type of event they would sponsor. I know I’m being prejudiced – nevertheless, we had a lineup of speakers that speaks volumes of how important diversity is to us. It tells us that we put value into diversity, equity, and inclusion. It’s not just lip service. It is what we live, it is part of our fabric. I’m so proud to be interwoven into that fabric.”
“I always learn something at the Diversity Impact Conference,” said FNU Associate Dean of Academic Affairs Rachel Risner, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, C-FNP, CNE. “I learned something from every one of our speakers. It was just such an important time for me to disconnect from all my other meetings and chats and work and just be in the moment and to listen to what everybody had to say and to have takeaways and to be able to be reflective. All the speakers were really great. I can’t wait to see how much it changes and grows every year.” Dr. Alexander-Delpech believes that the Diversity Impact Conference has the potential to become even more prominent in the years ahead.
“I want to see this as the signature online conference,” she said. “I want to take it beyond the university. I want to go beyond our walls because we can. We just need to push the envelope further. That’s my goal for next year, to bring outside people into the conference.”
FNU Launches Student Interest Groups
In June of this year, FNU launched five Student Interest Groups (SIGs). While additional groups might be formed in the future, the five initial groups and their facilitators are:
• International Students in Nursing (Regional Clinical Faculty Martha
Harvey, CNM, MSN, and Delana
Gardner, DNP, MSN, FNP-C)
• LGBTQIA+ Students in Nursing (Lee Moore, DNP, MEd, ARNP,
PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP, Jennifer
Parr, DNP, PMHNP-BC, and
Rebecca Wagschal, CNM) • Men in Nursing (Kevin Brunacini,
DNP, APRN, and Thomas George,
DNP, CRNP, FNP-C, NASM-CPT)
• Military/Veterans in Nursing (Joshua
Faucett, DNP, FNP-BC, and Kelly
Wilhite, DNP, CMN)
• Students of Color in Nursing (Dorsena
Gayle, DNP, CNM, ARNP and Diane
John, Ph.D., ARNP, FNP-BC )
“As I began this role, I had meetings with students, and I was hearing from them the need to have groups of likeness – affinity groups. I knew when I entered this role that would be one of my priorities. I attended all the first sessions of these groups, and I came away so satisfied and so proud. The students who participated were very vocal as to what it is that is needed. For instance, the LGBTQIA+ students want to meet with me because they want to advocate for curriculum change.”
The meetings are held monthly and are facilitated by faculty, but students drive the goals and purposes of each SIG. The
meetings are not recorded, and minutes are not taken, allowing for free, open, and brave conversations. Approximately 50 students in total attended the initial June meetings. Dr. Alexander-Delpech intended to have one faculty facilitator per group, but her request for facilitators was met with enough interest to have two faculty facilitators per SIG.
“The students will drive all initiatives,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “The SIGS all
DEI By The Numbers
have different goals they want to achieve. For instance, one of the goals of the Men in Nursing SIG is to eventually have an FNU chapter in the American Association of Men in Nursing. The International Student in Nursing group wants to have an international trip eventually.”
Frontier Nursing University is committed to a safe, open, and respectful university where every member is valued and welcomed. The Bias Incident Report Advisory Council was created in 2021 to bring together processes to develop a coordinated approach to responding to implicit and biased incidents at Frontier Nursing University. The aim is to bring together different perspectives and processes from across the University to develop a coordinated approach to responding to biased incidents at the University. A new online system is being implemented for employees and students. The online reporting system will provide an avenue to document perceived or actual bias-related incidents occurring at the University. This would enable FNU to track incidents, refer them to the appropriate parties, coordinate a response, and communicate with others when appropriate.
“If you experience an incident and you want to report it, you can do that via an online form, and you may choose to be anonymous,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “The report goes to the council members, who will then meet to discuss the incident and determine the resolution. That could be something resolved among the council members, something that will go to human resources, or something that will go to a supervisor. That information will be kept so we can have numbers and track incidents related to certain topics so that we as an institution can use it as an educational experience for us. The Bias Incident Report Advisory Council itself is not punitive. It is a council to identify gaps that we may have.”
FNU Issues Land Acknowledgment
On September 9, in conjunction with the university’s official ribbon-cutting ceremony, FNU is holding a land acknowledgment ceremony. A sign at the trailhead of FNU’s 5K walking path will inform visitors of the land’s history with the Shawnee and Cherokee people.
“I’m really gratified that we are going ahead with the land acknowledgment,” said Dr. Alexander-Delpech, who initiated the idea and solicited the aid of Dr. Rachel Risner, who is Choctaw and Cherokee and is cofounder of the Oklahoma Indigenous Nurses Association, and wrote the text for the sign.
The sign will read: “Frontier Nursing University wants to acknowledge that Versailles, Kentucky is the traditional territory of the Shawnee and Cherokee people. Frontier Nursing University acknowledges this legacy and finds inspiration from this land. We honor the land itself and those who remain stewards of this land throughout the generations. Territory or land acknowledgment is our way of recognizing the Indigenous presence in our everyday life.”
“Land acknowledgments are always really important,” Dr. Risner said. “It’s important to know the history behind the land and where it came from, who was there before us and why it matters. To feel the ground under your feet, to know who walked there before you, and appreciate that is the big thing. It is important to have an understanding of some of the terrible things that happened and to be grateful for what we have because of history. There’s so much history that hasn’t been told. A land acknowledgment is a great time for reflection and understanding. I think it’s going to be fantastic.”
FNU Prepares Nurse Educator DEI Faculty Fellows
Led by Dr. Alexander-Delpech, FNU has plans to launch a Nurse Educator DEI Faculty Fellowship program in the late summer or early fall of 2022. The initiative is fully funded by FNU. Eight faculty will be selected as Fellows and will attend a 12-week
DEI By The Numbers
DEI training. Those eight faculty members will then be assigned at least four more faculty whom they will coach for 12 weeks.
“This initiative came out of the President’s DEI Task Force,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “I am so proud that the university has invested in this important development and training for our faculty, who can then lead and learn from one another.”
A national as well as university leader, Dr. Alexander-Delpech presented “The Development of A Faculty DEI Fellows Program” at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s Diversity Leadership Institute in June.
One of FNU’s newest initiatives being led by the Office of DEI is the Safe Space for Students. Built on the principles of FNU’s Culture of Caring, Safe Space for Students is designed to improve support for all FNU students. FNU DEI Coordinator Chris Turley and Marketing and Student Recruitment Coordinator Rosalie Seitz have been appointed as Safe Space Liaisons (SSLs).
“The goal is to create a safe space for all students, a space where students can find a listening ear, encouragement, and guidance,” Dr. Alexander-Delpech said. “It is a space where students can find support when they feel overwhelmed. The primary responsibility of the Safe Space Liaisons is to listen to students and be a resource hub. The SSLs are receiving formal training on allyship and being non judgemental.”
FNU Professional Organizational Mentoring Program
FNU’s Professional Organizational Mentoring Program (POMP) offers underrepresented nurse-midwifery students and nurse practitioner students the opportunity to be mentored by faculty members at designated conferences to expand students’ learning and educational and professional experiences. POMP matches FNU faculty with underrepresented students to provide support and mentorship. POMP is open to any faculty wishing to serve as a mentor for students in the nursemidwifery and nurse practitioner tracks. The program allows faculty mentors to join a professional organization in their field, as well as gives them the opportunity to attend a professional conference. Conference registration and professional membership fees are covered for all faculty mentors and student mentees selected.
DEI By The Numbers
Congratulations to the faculty mentors and student mentees selected for the 2022 Professional Organizational Mentoring Program
American Colleges of NurseMidwives (ACNM) Conference
Faculty Mentor: J. Michelle Lawhorn, DNP, CNM Student Mentee: Lauren Huggins (CNEP)
American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) Conference
Faculty Mentors: Joanne Keefe, DNP, MPH, FNP-C, CNE; Thomas George, DNP, CRNP, FNP-C, NASM-CPT; and Erin Tenney, DNP, CNM, WHNP, APNP Student Mentees: Yasmin Alejandro (FNP) and Norah Ezike (FNP)
American Association of Birth Centers (AABC) Conference
Faculty Mentor: Diana Jolles, Ph.D., CNM, FACNM Student Mentees: Ashia-Lee Brown (CNEP) and Claudia Odubona (CNEP)
National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) Conference
Faculty Mentors: Paula AlexanderDelpech, Ph.D., PMHNP-BC, APRN, and Dorsena Gayle, DNP, CNM, ARNP Student Mentees: Tamara Mitchell (FNP), Hannah Howell (CNEP), and Jarai Barry (WHNP)
American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) Conference
Faculty Mentor: Johnni Cansler, DNP, APRN, PMHNP-BC Student Mentees: Dorcas Abimaje (PMHNP) and Karletia Lewis (PMHNP)
Gay & Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA) Conference
Faculty Mentor: Lee Moore, DNP, MEd, ARNP, PMHNP-BC, CARN-AP Student Mentee: Malori Hinchen (PMHNP)
Frontier Nursing University Selected to Participate in National Initiative to Foster Inclusive Learning Environment
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) announced that Frontier Nursing University (FNU) is one of 50 schools of nursing in the U.S. to have been selected to participate in a national initiative designed to foster inclusive learning environments and build a more diverse nursing workforce. Nearly 250 schools applied to participate in the initiative.
In January 2022, AACN commenced a project titled Building a Culture of Belonging in Academic Nursing with funding from Johnson & Johnson. AACN launched this initiative to help schools of nursing create environments where students, faculty, and staff possess a strong sense of belonging and are encouraged to thrive.
“Creating a learning culture where all individuals are able to develop and do their best work is critical to achieving academic nursing’s goals related to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” said Dr. Deborah Trautman, AACN President and Chief Executive Officer. “AACN is pleased to join with 50 member schools to pilot test a new tool that will help to evolve how nurse educators approach teaching, learning, and professional engagement.”
To support this project, AACN developed a digital platform to administer its Leading Across Multidimensional Perspectives (LAMP®) Culture and Climate Survey. This instrument collects data on student, faculty, and staff perceptions of their college classrooms as communities in five thematic areas: fair treatment and observations of discrimination, belongingness, value of diversity and inclusion, campus services, and clinical training.
Using data collected via LAMP, AACN will provide institution-level assessments and action reports to participating schools related to developing inclusive academic environments. This tool provides
administrators with a better understanding of how their campus climate influences student experiences and achievement. With assessment data from internal stakeholders, educators are equipped with valuable information needed to initiate change, target areas of growth, and most importantly, improve student outcomes. AACN will also use aggregate data collected from participating schools to identify best practices and success strategies that can be deployed at institutions nationwide.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been an intentional component of Frontier Nursing University’s goals, initiatives, and planning since 2010, when the university launched PRIDE (Promoting Recruitment and Retention to Increase Diversity in Nurse-Midwifery and Nurse Practitioner Education). Now known as the Diversity Impact Program, PRIDE was specifically intended to raise the level of diversity in student enrollment. In 2010, the enrollment of students of color was 9%. Today, that number has risen to over 27%, and FNU’s DEI efforts have expanded exponentially to include all members and aspects of the FNU community, including curriculum content and faculty and staff diversity, recruitment, and retention.
“We are honored to have been selected to participate in this important initiative,” said FNU Interim Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer Paula Alexander-Delpech, Ph.D., PMHNP-BC, APRN. “We hope that the assessment data collected from students, faculty, and staff will give us valuable information that will guide us to initiate changes, identify target areas for growth, and most importantly, help us to improve student outcomes.”
Schools selected to participate in this pilot study are geographically diverse and represent a range of institutional types (public and private institutions; small and large schools; rural and urban-serving programs, etc.) Having a broad range of participating schools is important to securing results that can be generalizable across all types of nursing schools.
Pilot testing of the LAMP survey will be completed in spring 2023. AACN will disseminate aggregate findings to all schools of nursing next year.
Dr. Rachel Risner Is Devoted to Helping Others
The National League for Nursing (NLN) recently announced that Frontier Nursing University Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Dr. Rachel Risner, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, C-FNP, CNE, has been selected to participate in the NLN’s Leadership Academy (see the full story on page 11). The Leadership Academy, which is a year-long program, “focuses on leadership development for nurse educators and other interprofessional colleagues to develop leadership competencies, integrate social determinants of health and social change into curricula and programs, and engage in research and scholarly activities related to social determinants of health and social change.” That is a lot to pack into one year, particularly while her plate remains full at FNU, but Dr. Risner has never been one to shy away from hard work, particularly when that work is in service to others.
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Dr. Risner is Choctaw and Cherokee. With money and resources in short supply growing up, she relied on the caring and generosity of others. Those are gifts that she has paid forward ever since.
“If it wasn’t for the support from the Choctaw nation, I don’t know how I would have survived as a child,” Dr. Risner said. “There aren’t a lot of opportunities for tribal support in every state, but in Oklahoma, there is a lot of support from the tribes. I grew up in a very underserved family. I was lucky that I had my medical covered, that I could obtain a scholarship when I was going to school, and that I had support for clothing. I was able to obtain food when I needed food. They did so much for me growing up that I feel that’s why I do what I do. If I can help somebody else the way that I was helped, it’s really important to me.”
Dr. Risner didn’t wait long to start helping others. She began working in a psychiatric facility for geriatric patients when she was 14. Then, when she was 17, she began working as a home health aid taking care of a young boy with cerebral palsy. She cared for him for seven years and even took him into her home for three years.
“I cared for him all day long,” said Dr. Risner of the young man who sadly passed away at the age of 23. “I took him to school. I took him to prom. I walked him across the stage for graduation. We had a really close relationship. He impacted my life in so many ways. I just knew that by caring for him, I wanted to do more for people.”
She decided a good way to do that would be to become a nurse. While working fulltime as a registered nurse, she graduated from Frontier in 2010 as a family nurse practitioner (FNP). She went into family practice for the next 18 months before being recruited by Oklahoma City University to help write the curriculum for their Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) to Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program. She went on to earn both her DNP and a Ph.D. in nursing education from Oklahoma City University. Dr. Risner began teaching at Frontier in 2014, holding various positions, including course faculty and course coordinator, before being named the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs in 2018.
“My work at Frontier focuses on having a big-picture view of the curriculum, of all programs at the university,” Dr. Risner
–Dr. Risner
said. “I have an eye on accreditation, making sure that we are meeting all of our competencies and essentials with all of our accrediting bodies, that we are meeting all of our expectations, and are graduating our students to be everything that our accreditors say they need to be.”
Ensuring these standards are met means identifying gaps in the curriculum. Doing so means that Dr. Risner works closely with many departments and individuals at FNU.
“We strive for consensus and collaboration in Academic Affairs to make sure we are meeting the needs of everybody in every department,” Dr. Risner said. “We can then make sure that we are producing the absolute best product that we can for our students to be successful in each one of our programs so they can meet the needs of the families that they are serving in their practice.”
The curriculum review process is an initiative of the President’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force, which was formed in January 2021. Dr. Risner and the Curriculum and Course Design Coach Audrey Perry, DNP, CNM, began by holding meetings with students, faculty, and staff.
“We wanted to hear from all of our stakeholders to determine what we could do better and how we could make our curriculum more diverse, more equitable, and more inclusive for our students to assist them in being better providers in all of our programs,” Dr. Risner said. By the end of these sessions, she and Dr. Perry were left with hundreds of pages of information, from which they identified five themes common to the stakeholder meetings:
• Social Determinants of Health • Health Equity • Anti-Racism • Cultural Safety • Social Justice
“We are working on scaffolding these concepts across the curriculum in all of our programs, not only in our didactic courses but across our clinical courses as well, so our students can be well prepared to apply these concepts when they are in clinical practice working with families,” Dr. Risner said.
The subcommittee also worked with FNU’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee to develop guidelines for course faculty and course coordinators concerning imagery in courses.
“Being able to see it through a different lens is extremely important,” Dr. Risner said. “Having so many students from so many different backgrounds and experiences who are looking at our curriculum in different ways is just going to help us do better and make our curriculum even better.” Dr. Risner explains that cultural understanding and awareness are extremely important in healthcare to build trust and improve communication. One of the keys to reducing healthcare disparities and improving outcomes is a better understanding of one another’s culture.
“The biggest challenge is just building trust with your patient,” Dr. Risner said. “If you go to a regular clinic, the provider comes in, and they talk really fast. They want to do it all in 15 minutes. You can’t do that with a native person. First, (a native
DEI By The Numbers
person) won’t talk to you because they don’t trust you. It takes so much time to build rapport and trust before you can even begin the visit. That’s what’s so different about going to Indian Health Services here in Oklahoma. I may see 25 patients per day at a clinic that’s not Indian Health Services, but (there) they may only see 10 because they know they will have to go in and build trust and rapport. Just like any culture, you need to know the approach.”
That is a message that Dr. Risner is trying to communicate not only to FNU students but to nurses and healthcare providers across the country. Through her work with NLN, she is part of a workgroup that developed a toolkit for faculty to mentor American Indian and Alaskan Native students. The same group is also developing a nurse mentor portal for faculty across the United States who work with American Indian and Alaskan Native students.
“In training faculty, there is a lot of focus on unconscious bias and microaggression, on how to be a mentor, what it means to have a mentoring relationship, including the cultural aspects of what it means to work with students who have an American Indian Alaskan Native background,” said Dr. Risner.
Dr. Risner is also involved as a group coach in the NLN Step Into Leadership Program, which is aimed at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Through coaching sessions, she helps senior undergraduate nursing students transition into leadership positions after graduation.
Dr. Risner’s leadership and impact are felt in organizations large – such as FNU and NLN – and small, such as the Oklahoma Indigenous Nurses Association. Only about 18 months old, this organization was formed by a group of five Indigenous nurses, including Dr. Risner. It is the first Indigenous nurses association in the state.
“There were five of us that had a like-minded goal. We’re all from different tribes, and it’s really exciting. Our Facebook page has now surpassed 100 nurses that are native here in the state,” Dr. Risner said from her home in Oklahoma City. The group meets monthly and has a guest speaker at each meeting. As the group has grown and word has spread, so has the demand to speak at a monthly meeting. Speakers are now being scheduled over a year in advance. The calendar is filling up, and, more importantly, so has the group’s influence.
“We were able to provide feedback on the American Nurses Association (ANA) racial reckoning statement,” Dr. Risner said. “They took into consideration some of our feedback – not all of it, but they did listen. They have been in contact with our tiny little group and have asked us to participate in some research with the ANA because there are not a lot of indigenous nurses associations around, so we are trying to do as much as we can.”
The group mirrors Dr. Risner, who seemingly devotes every waking minute to serving others.
“I just try to do as much as possible to help anybody I can,” she said. “I just like helping other people.”
Audrey Perry and Rachel Risner Present at Coursetune Camp
Coursetune’s 5th annual virtual partner and prospect event was held on June 17th. The all-day focused on how to change the conversations about curriculum, student outcomes, and alignment. FNU faculty Audrey Perry, DNP, CNM, CNE, and Rachel Risner, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, C-FNP, CNE, presented “Roadmap of Change – How Frontier Nursing University is Shifting the Narrative.”
Dr. Rachel Risner Selected for National League for Nursing & Walden University College of Nursing Institute for Social Determinants of Health & Social Change
Frontier Nursing University is proud to announce that Dr. Rachel Risner, Ph.D., DNP, APRN, C-FNP, CNE, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, has been selected to participate in the National League for Nursing & Walden University College of Nursing Institute for Social Determinants of Health & Social Change. Dr. Risner attended an orientation to the Social Determinants of Health & Social Change Leadership Academy, held in Washington, D.C., August 8-9. The orientation was the start of the year-long program, which is a key element of a groundbreaking collaboration between the League and Walden University College of NursingInstitute for Social Determinants of Health and Social Change, launched last year to bring about positive social change through focused professional development.
Dr. Risner was chosen through a competitive application process for her dedicated work in social determinants of health and social change, which address the impact of structural racism, socioeconomic status, environment, education, adequate housing, and food insecurity on health and wellbeing.
“We are so proud and fortunate to have Dr. Risner at Frontier Nursing University,” said FNU Dean of Nursing Dr. Joan Slager, CNM, DNP, FACNM, FAAN. “She is a dedicated leader with a strong commitment to FNU’s vision for educating our students about the social determinants of health and the delivery of equitable health care.”
In addition to her work with FNU, Dr. Risner has traveled as a consultant for government hospitals in the Middle East with American Gulf International Consulting and has taught the Certified Professional in Infection Control course in the Middle East with the American Institute of Healthcare Quality. She earned an Associate of Applied Science in Nursing (RN) from Oklahoma City Community College, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Oklahoma City University, a Master of Science in Nursing as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Frontier Nursing University, and a Doctor of Nursing Practice and a Ph.D. in Nursing Education from Oklahoma City University.
“My job, my goal is to teach, motivate, and inspire faculty, as well as oversee the curriculum at Frontier Nursing University,” Dr. Risner said. “I strive to be the person faculty look to for knowledge and guidance. My wish is to end each working day with a sense of accomplishment, knowing that I made a positive impact on at least one person I’ve encountered that day. I am looking forward to participating in the NLN Leadership Academy and engaging with other link-minded colleagues over the next year.” “The National League for Nursing is delighted to join with the Walden University College of Nursing in this exciting new endeavor,” said NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, Ph.D., RN, FAAN. “The year of planned activities focuses on scholarly writing, research, curriculum development, and building leadership competencies, all designed to facilitate their leading role in preparing future caregivers to provide outstanding culturally sensitive care while focusing on systems and structures that advance the health of our nation and the global community.”
“The caliber of this inaugural Leadership Academy cohort is a demonstration of how important the collaboration is between the National League for Nursing and Walden University’s College of Nursing for addressing the social determinants of health and social change,” said Dr. Andrea Lindell, RN, ANEF, vice provost at Walden University. “I am excited and proud that the selection of this distinguished group is another vital step toward making a profound change in health education and outcomes for vulnerable populations.”
The Leadership Academy is overseen by the NLN Center for Transformational Leadership. For more information, visit NLNWaldenSDOH.org.
