Taking Action to Promote Diversity and Inclusion: One Program's Efforts Through Pathway Opportunities, Holistic Admissions, and Curricular Changes.

AIMS: Concerted, effective, and sustainable change in healthcare education programs is a critical step towards creating more diverse, inclusive, and equitable professions. This commentary demonstrates how one entry-level physical therapist education program, through a process of reflection, prioritization, and action, is taking steps to increase diversity, equity, and inclusivity within their program. RATIONALE: This article highlights initiatives that are leveraging existing partnerships and creating new ones to reach and mentor students from diverse communities, steps taken towards a more holistic and equitable admissions process, implementation of curricular changes to intentionally discuss the social determinants of health, and engagement of faculty and students to foster personal and professional development on diversity, equity, and inclusion topics. Outcomes to track the effectiveness of the strategies being used by each initiative are shared. CONCLUSION: To create active agents of change, education programs must create a diverse and equitable space for students and guide them to become leaders who can transform society. Steps taken by an entry-level physical therapist education program to implement strategies to promote diversity, equity and inclusion can serve as a road map for other healthcare professional programs.

Effects of an Online Educational Module on School Nurses' Knowledge of HPV Vaccination.

BACKGROUND: Results of a previous state-wide survey revealed generally low knowledge levels about HPV vaccination among school nurses in Missouri. A short, online educational module targeted to address the specific low-scoring items was then created. METHOD: All 440 lead school nurses in Missouri were invited by e-mail to participate in an online HPV educational module and study. The e-mail contained a link to the module that included a consent form, a test, and a downloadable completion certificate. The test consisted of 12 multiple choice and true-or-false items based directly on the content contained in the module. An independent samples t test was used to determine pre-post differences in mean test scores. RESULTS: Scores improved significantly (p < .05) pre-post intervention; however, surveillance or epidemiology-related questions were still commonly missed. CONCLUSION: Using brief, targeted, online trainings to improve knowledge of specific health-related content may be a practical option for busy school nurses. J Contin Educ Nurs. 2017;48(9):431-436.