Social responsibility: conceptualization and embodiment in a school of nursing

This paper describes how a school of nursing has conceptualized and embodied social responsibility in its core values, curricular design, admission standards, clinical practice, and service learning opportunities. The school's engagement in the process of practicing social responsibility and clarifying its meaning and application has made apparent the natural linkage between social responsibility and professionalism and the deep and complex relationship between social responsibility and nursing itself. It has also revealed how a commitment to social responsibility impacts and determines for whom nurses care. Claiming social responsibility as a core value and working to refine its meaning and place has increased the school's commitment to it, concomitantly impacting education, practice, and recruitment and evaluation of faculty and students. The school views the conceptualization of social responsibility as a deepening and unfolding evolution, rather than as a formulaic understanding, and expects that its ongoing work of claiming social responsibility as a core value will continue to be enriching.