Learning health equity frameworks within a community of scholars

Doctoral and post-doctoral study is a time of introspection and discovering new ways of knowing. The complexities of mastering the basic scholarship of a discipline and the inevitable soul searching about unfamiliar perspectives require a great deal of psychic energy and intellectual honesty. The American Nurses Association’s Social Policy Statement (Neuman & Dixon, 2010) aims to illuminate nursing’s disciplinary obligations to operate within a framework of values which reflect the society it serves. This social contract, though narrow in scope, provides a starting point from which to launch discussions about disciplinary knowledge development and the creation of the next generation of nursing scholars. With respect to the body of nursing scholarship, students need to incorporate social values that recognize diverse life-styles (Bevis & Watson, 1989) and consider the concepts of social justice and health equity. Almost twenty years ago, Baldwin and Nelms (1993) recommended that students engage in “difficult dialogues” about race, ethnicity, and sexuality. In their own classroom, Baldwin and Nelms encouraged inclusion of the experiences of “white women, women of color and men of color” and introduced diversity topics within a racialized and gendered context. They noted that while learning was enhanced, students and faculty were uncomfortable discussing these topics (Baldwin & Nelms, p. 343). While difficult and complex issues about health extend far beyond race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, discussion on the broad array of topics that detract from health equity can present challenges to emerging scholars. Dialogue about sensitive topics is best accomplished in a learning environment where faculty and students openly acknowledge and confront the existence of bias, judgment, power differentials and prejudice. Finding or creating this environment can be difficult but necessary if we as nurses are to take an active role in promoting health equity of individuals and communities. A fundamental understanding that human experiences are contextually and culturally defined can aid us in this quest (Neuman & Dixon, 2010). Herein, we describe the development and implementation of a doctoral and post-doctoral seminar collective examining theories, concepts, and methods related to health equity. We first introduce the setting for the course, Health Equity: Conceptual, Linguistic, Methodological, and Ethical Issues. Within this context, we explore the concept of health equity and the development of the classroom seminar itself. We also explore the lessons learned in developing and implementing the course, and provide suggestions to doctoral students and faculty about how others might replicate and build upon this innovative model. We have merged faculty and students voices in this paper as co-authors unless we explicitly indicate otherwise.