Honoring Place

The University of Washington acknowledges the Coast Salish peoples of this land, the land which touches the shared waters of all tribes and bands within the Suquamish, Tulalip and Muckleshoot nations.*

*The language we use to honor place was developed over the course of several years by the UW Tribal Liaison with input from tribal elders, elected tribal leaders, attendees of the annual UW Tribal Leadership Summit, the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, UW Native American Advisory Board and others across our community. This language template is spoken by UW leadership during events to acknowledge that our campus sits on occupied land. We recognize that this is a difficult, painful and long history, and we thank the original caretakers of this land.

To learn more about Indigenous presence on the Seattle campus of the University of Washington, please take the Indigenous Walking Tour.

A map of Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages is available at this external site.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging

While we at the UW School of Nursing strive and aspire to the following statement, we humbly accept that our ability to fully live up to it is a work in progress. Across individuals, groups, cultures, spaces, policies, and practices, involving our school community – faculty, staff, students, and community partners – we recognize that the right paths to destinations we seek in fulfilling our commitment and achieving our goals with respect to diversity, equity, inclusion, and anti-oppression require ongoing learning and evolved ways of operating. As our complex organization makes this journey, we acknowledge that missteps may be made and wrong turns may be taken. We invite and encourage all to lean in and constructively contribute to our efforts and actions to improve our school.

A fundamental purpose of nursing is the provision of quality and equitable health care to all members, groups, and communities of society. Nursing knowledge and practice must be sufficiently broad in perspective and content to meet the requirements of a diverse, multicultural population. To this end, the University of Washington School of Nursing seeks to attract, admit/hire, and support diverse and racially representative students, staff, and faculty members.

A central activity to support this diverse community is adequate preparation to interact with people from all cultures. This focus requires that nursing be responsive to, explicitly value, and incorporate a wide variety of perspectives and experiences. This open and flexible approach is based on respect for all cultures and their members; examination of our own perspectives, biases, and socialization; and the ability to examine and adjust our own perspectives, beliefs and behaviors.

We are committed to fostering a climate that is inclusive and welcoming of all groups. We recognize that this effort is a multidimensional one that includes recruitment efforts, policies, curriculum, pedagogy, norms, practices, faculty/staff promotions, decision making, and continuing multicultural and anti-oppression education for faculty and staff members. We also recognize that nursing education and practice in the United States occurs within the social, cultural, and historical context of institutionalized racism (among other forms of oppression). Meeting our purpose thus requires a sustained and multifaceted effort.

We are committed to eliminating all forms of oppression resulting from socially and culturally constructed differences. This includes race/ethnicity, sex/gender identity or orientation, socioeconomic status, language, age, physical characteristics, disability, pregnancy, veteran status, country of origin, citizenship, religious or political beliefs, and military status.

To read our current DEI Strategic Action Plan, click here.  A prior iteration of the plan can be accessed here.

Principles of Inclusion

• We affirm the inherent dignity of each individual and group.
• We affirm that group differences are socially, culturally, and historically constructed and hierarchically arranged, resulting in an inequitable distribution of resources among groups. This construction and distribution can be changed and we commit to change it.
• We affirm our commitment to address difference, privilege and power at the UW School of Nursing. We will address privilege and power using anti-racist and anti-oppression principles of ongoing education, open dialogue, skill building, challenging the status quo, and accountability to people of color and other social groups.
• We affirm our commitment to increase the number of faculty, students and staff from underrepresented groups, and to support opportunities within the school.
• We affirm our commitment to work toward a climate of inclusiveness on all levels of the UW School of Nursing.

Antiracism Pledge

In autumn 2020, one of the UW School of Nursing’s antiracism workgroups drafted an antiracism pledge.  This is currently in draft form and being circulated for review among various school stakeholders.  The draft pledge can be viewed here.