UR School of Nursing Receives Fifth Straight Health Professions HEED Award

The University of Rochester School of Nursing has received the 2021 Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. This marks the fifth consecutive year that the UR School of Nursing has been chosen for this honor.

The UR School of Nursing is among 51 health professions schools from around the country selected to receive the only national award recognizing medical, dental, pharmacy, nursing, osteopathic, and allied health schools that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. This year’s recipients will be featured in the December 2021 issue of INSIGHT Into Diversity, the oldest and largest diversity-focused publication in higher education.

“We’re grateful for the opportunity to be acknowledged among our peers as an institution that values diversity in all its forms and stands committed to fostering a community of inclusiveness and respect,” said Mitchell Wharton, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, CNS, the school’s associate dean for equity and inclusion.

The UR School of Nursing, which has been at the forefront of diversity, inclusion, and equity issues for nearly two decades, is one of 13 nursing schools to receive the HEED Health Professions Award in 2021. Its academic programs attract scientists, clinicians, researchers, and future nurses of varying ages, backgrounds, and talents, and its incoming fall class of students in the Accelerated Bachelor’s Program for Non-Nurses (ABPNN) includes students from across the U.S. and countries such as Ecuador, Rwanda, Iceland, and China. Thirty-three percent of the new ABPNN students were from groups underrepresented in nursing, and 26 percent were male, approximately three times higher than the percentage of men in the nursing workforce.

“The Health Professions HEED Award process consists of a comprehensive and rigorous application that includes questions relating to the recruitment and retention of students and employees – and best practices for both – continued leadership support for diversity, and other aspects of campus diversity and inclusion,” said Lenore Pearlstein, publisher of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine. “We take a detailed approach to reviewing each application in deciding who will be named a Health Professions HEED Award recipient. Our standards are high, and we look for schools where diversity and inclusion are woven into the work being done every day across their campus.”

“I’m so pleased that the UR School of Nursing has been recognized with a HEED Award for a fifth time,” said Kathy Rideout, EdD, PPCNP-BC, FNAP, dean of the School of Nursing and vice president of the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). “We know that this a competitive process, so for our school to consistently appear on this list is a testament to our investment in creating a welcoming learning environment that embraces and reflects the diversity of our faculty, staff, and students.”

The full list of recipients of the 2021 Health Professions HEED Award is below:

A.T. Still University of Graduate Health Sciences

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, University of California, Davis

College of Public Health at The Ohio State University

Columbia University College of Dental Medicine

Duke University School of Nursing

Florida State University College of Medicine

Frontier Nursing University

Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine

Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine

McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston

MGH Institute of Health Professions

University of Michigan Medical School

Michigan State University, College of Veterinary Medicine

NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences

Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

Purdue University College of Veterinary Medicine

TCU and UNTHSC School of Medicine

Texas A&M University (TAMU) - College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS)

Texas A&M University Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy

The Medical College of Wisconsin, Inc.

The Medical University of South Carolina

The Ohio State University College of Medicine

The Ohio State University College of Nursing

The Ohio State University College of Optometry

The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine

UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS)

University of California, Riverside School of Medicine

University of Cincinnati College of Nursing

University of Cincinnati James L Winkle College of Pharmacy

University of Cincinnati, College of Allied Health Sciences

University of Florida College of Dentistry

University of Florida College of Pharmacy

University of Houston College of Nursing

University of Kentucky College of Medicine

University of Louisville Health Sciences Center

University of Maryland School of Nursing

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

University of Minnesota School of Nursing

University of Mississippi Medical Center

University of Rochester School of Nursing

University of Virginia School of Medicine

University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing

UT Southwestern Medical Center

Vanderbilt University School of Nursing

Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine

Weill Cornell Medicine

For more information about the 2020 Health Professions HEED Award, visit insightintodiversity.com.

For more information about the University of Rochester School of Nursing, visit www.son.rochester.edu.