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Diversity Impact Weekend
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NU has held five annual Diversity Impact Weekend events since the PRIDE Initiative began in 2011. PRIDE is a program of FNU designed to recruit and retain students of color in order to diversify the advanced nursing and midwifery workforce in America. The ultimate goal is to improve the healthcare provided to our Four of the summer Couriers arrived early increasingly diverse populations. Diversity to participate in Diversity Impact weekend Impact weekend serves as the flagship event to PRIDE, striving to foster a sustained commitment to diversity among nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives. The purpose of Diversity Impact is to ensure that nurse practitioners and nursemidwives understand the challenges and opportunities offered by diversity in rural and underserved healthcare systems. Diversity Impact weekend leaves PRIDE students and attendees with a deep appreciation for the need for diversity and cultural-competence in healthcare settings, which more often than not is within their own communities. One student emphasizes her goal for joining PRIDE to enhance her patient-provider relationships: “…my ignorance, and experience with minimally diverse cultures puts me at a great disadvantage. How can I effectively teach, support, or care for women and their families if I do not know how they prefer to be taught, supported or cared for? I believe that being a PRIDE member, and attending the Diversity Impact event, I am able to learn valuable tools and information that will help guide me to achieve these goals… I will learn how to better serve various cultures and thus learn how to best treat my patients when I am an advanced practice nurse.” - Justina Polvere, CNEP, PRIDE Program, FNU The 6th Annual Diversity Impact Weekend (DIW) event was held on June 3-5, 2016 in Hyden, Kentucky, where Frontier Nursing University (FNU) students, alumni, faculty and staff united for fellowship, networking, cultural awareness activities, and discussions related to increasing diversity in nursing and midwifery. Educational sessions were led by FNU faculty members, addressing a range of diversity topics from environment and health, gender diversity, religious diversity, vulnerable populations, race and patient care, LGBT health, politics and health, and health disparities. The keynote address was provided by Dr. Lily Hsia, CNM, CPNP, FACNM, who has over 30 years of experience with the SUNY Downstate Midwifery 27