Perspectives and corrective processes: Evaluating social justice in a nursing PhD program.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Social Justice in Higher Education

Background:

• Growing demand for social justice principles in PhD nursing programs, intensified by recent societal events and health disparities.
• Need to evaluate and embed social justice tenets throughout doctoral nursing curricula.

Approach:

• Established a Social Justice Taskforce within the School of Nursing.
• Conducted listening sessions with alumni and current PhD students to gather experiential insights.
• Administered surveys to PhD students for prioritizing areas of improvement.
• Convened stakeholders to align student-identified priorities with institutional practices.

Key Points:

• Diverse constituent and stakeholder perspectives are crucial for effective social justice integration.
• Acknowledging existing areas for improvement is a necessary first step.
• Active student engagement is vital for driving transformative change.
• Collaborative partnerships between students, faculty, staff, and leaders are essential for developing solutions.

Conclusions:

• A systematic, multi-faceted approach is effective for evaluating and enhancing social justice in PhD nursing programs.
• Continuous engagement with diverse stakeholders is key to addressing systemic injustices.
• Integrating social justice principles requires ongoing commitment and collaborative action within academic institutions.