UT Health San Antonio School of Nursing’s (SON) mission is to develop diverse nurse leaders to improve health care through excellence in education, research, health care, and community engagement. UT Health San Antonio SON’s goal is to create environments that encourage collegiality, respect, and value for all staff, students, and faculty through promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Diversity- describes the myriad ways in which people differ, including psychological, physical, and social differences that occur among all individuals, such as race, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, religion, economic class, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, mental and physical ability, and learning styles. Diversity is all-inclusive and about understanding these differences and moving beyond simple tolerance to embracing and celebrating the rich dimensions of our differences.
- Equity- ensures that individuals are provided the resources they need to access the same opportunities as the general population. While equity represents impartiality, i.e., distribution is made in such a way to even opportunities for all the people. Conversely, equality indicates uniformity, where everything is evenly distributed among people.
- Inclusion- is authentically bringing traditionally excluded individuals and/or groups into processes, activities, and decision/policy making in a way that shares power.
Goals
Advance all dimensions of DEI as essential components of excellence at the SON.
- Create a culture that values Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging
- Recruit outstanding faculty, staff, and students representing diverse backgrounds and communities to advance the DEI mission and increase retention rates.
- Promote an inclusive educational and working environment.