Providing Resources to Diversify Images and Audiovisuals for Educating Nurses

Background and Problem Statement: Using diverse and inclusive images when educating nurses is essential for increasing feelings of belongingness and connection to the curriculum, as well as preparing students for the diversity of their future patients. However, many images and audiovisuals used in teaching nursing do not represent all students nor their patients. This exclusion is a type of microaggression that contributes to feelings of lack of belonging and adverse personal and educational outcomes (Metzger, 2020). Educators often struggle to find a rich variety of images they can incorporate into their classes.

Specific Aim: To create two easily usable guides to assist people to locate diverse and inclusive images for educating nurses and other health professionals.

Method: The presenters created two LibGuides on their university library's webpage that are accessible to anyone with Internet access: "Diverse Images and AVs for Educating Health Professionals," and "Journal Articles with Photographs of Visible Diseases and Conditions in People with Skin of Various Colors". These guides direct faculty and other interested people to easily accessible diverse and inclusive images and audiovisuals.

Results: Usage statistics provided on the poster, as well as comments from faculty and students, demonstrate continuing use of these resources. Significance: Viewers of the poster will come away with links to these two LibGuides and places they can look to increase the diversity of images they use in their teaching.

Reference: Metzger, M., et al. (2020). Inclusivity in baccalaureate nursing education: A scoping study. J Prof Nurs, 36, 5-14. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2019.06.002.

Linda Felver
PhD, RN
Associate Professor, School of Nursing
Oregon Health & Science University

Biography

Dr. Linda Felver, PhD, RN, is an Associate Professor at Oregon Health & Science University where she teaches clinical pharmacology and pathophysiology in the School of Nursing. Recipient of numerous teaching awards, Dr. Felver enjoys helping people take the knowledge from their textbooks and computer screens and connect it to the whole people they will encounter as nurses.

Her Photo Diversity Project arose from her passion for finding and using teaching photos that represent a range of diversity rather than the readily available photos that use white skin, cisgender, physically able, middle-class, white males as the default. This ongoing project has developed into ways of making diverse images and audiovisuals more easily available to others, to use in their teaching.

Phone: 503-494-3723
Email: felverl@ohsu.edu

Co-Author(s):
Pam Pierce, MLS, MS