The Nursing Education and Professional Development Department at Advocate Aurora Health conducted a “talkback” session inspired by an episode of the NPD Forecast podcast from 2020 on allyship to augment conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within their team. Allyship refers to a person of privilege working in solidarity and partnership with a marginalized group of people to dismantle systems that challenge a group’s basic rights, equal access, and ability to thrive in society (Asong Nfonoyim-Hara, 2021).
“The idea for the session started with the creation of our DEI sub-team,” said Jennifer Myles-Clair, Nursing Professional Development Lead and chair of the NEPD DEI committee. “We encouraged everyone to listen to the NPD Forecast allyship podcast episode, which sparked discussion within our own DEI team. That led to the decision to expand the conversation to our larger NPD team.”
Linda Bub, Regional Manager of Nursing Education with Advocate Aurora Health Care, asserted that her team had been seeking an opportunity to bring everyone together to engage in discussions around DEI; however, their efforts had been disrupted when the pandemic hit.
“We've tried to do a book club, but the pandemic prevented that from happening,” said Bub. “Finally in September of this year, we were able to schedule the collective discussions around the NPD Forecast episode. It was just a great podcast that tackled some really tough issues. It turned out to be a great experience.”
The process of launching the talk back session proved to be a meticulous and collaborative effort. Above all, Bub and Myles-Clair wished to create a safe space for open discussion and learning.
“It started with Jen and I introducing the topic, going over the ground rules for this session and establishing a really safe environment for discussion,” said Bub. “From there, we started with a full group discussion and eventually broke off into smaller groups for targeted discussions. We established a list of questions that the smaller groups had to address, all having to do with being an ally. At the end of the exercise, we’d ask one person from the group to share the most interesting points or major takeaways.”
Additionally, Bub and Myles-Clair designated time when participants could partake in an additional learning activity, such as a scavenger hunt. At the conclusion of the session, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive with participants noting a significant change in how they approached allyship.
“Everyone reported an increase in confidence and a better understanding of the role of allyship as an NPD practitioner,” said Myles-Clair. “Another big takeaway was that marginalized groups cannot be expected to educate the rest of the world; it’s definitely a joint effort.”
Due to the success of the session, both Bub and Myles-Clair anticipate repeating the exercise to promote further DEI learning and conversation.
“The plan is to provide this opportunity in the future, most likely using another podcast episode,” said Myles-Clair. “This exercise really opened everyone's eyes to what allyship truly is and how NPD practitioners can stay actionable.”
Bub agrees that in order to maintain progress, NPD practitioner teams need to develop action items that they can integrate into their daily work.
“I think having actionable items for your work, even for people who are pretty passionate about being an ally, can be a challenge,” said Bub. “How can we make a difference in our workday life? Also, it’s super helpful to know that there's a podcast that you can listen to in your car or when you're on the treadmill that can help really improve your practice.”
Overall, the talk back session built tremendous momentum in how NPD practitioners can approach allyship and DEI in their specialty. The evident growth from her team members has made Bub optimistic about future exercises.
“I think everyone had some challenges in 2020,” said Bub. The fact that two years later we hosted a conversation about being an ally, and how to be an ally as an NPD practitioner, is huge. It was a great opportunity and it led to a ton of growth within our team, and our leadership that supports that growth. It's certainly been an interesting journey the last two plus years, but this was really a highlight.”
REFERENCES
Asong Nfonoyim-Hara, N. (2021, January 28). What is Allyship? National Institutes of Health Communities Blog. https://www.edi.nih.gov/blog/communities/what-allyship