According to School of Nursing Dean Linda A. McCauley 79MN, PhD, RN, FAAN, FRCN, the nursing profession stands at such a junction. The path that nursing has traveled to this intersection has been exemplary — nurses are the most trusted health profession, with good reason — but the terrain around the path is increasingly daunting.

‘Walking the Talk’ of Leadership

The School of Nursing weaves leadership throughout the student experience, says Paula Tucker 10MSN 24PhD, DNP, FNP-BC, ENP-C, FAANP, clinical associate professor and family/emergency nurse practitioner program director. “The school encourages engagement in committees and organizations, the curriculum integrates robust objectives emphasizing leadership, and faculty members encourage students to refine leadership through research and service learning,” she adds. “These experiences facilitate interprofessional collaboration and contribute to their development, so they are well prepared to make lasting contributions to health care.”

Assistant Clinical Professor Chelsea Hagopian 12BSN 14MSN 18DNP, APRN, AGACNP-BC, models leadership as she accompanies her pre-licensure students to the Georgia Nurses Association’s Nurses Day at the Capitol each year. At this event, students apply the foundational knowledge of leadership they learn in the classroom to engage in policy advocacy around issues that matter to them. The event is one of many opportunities students have to take part in health care advocacy.

Clinical track faculty also participate in community-based partnerships, with several leading U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grants to advance health delivery in underserved areas. As they involve students in their work, they show how nurses can lead outside typical acute care settings.

“Watching faculty is a rich source of learning that happens as students are in the early formation of their professional identity in nursing,” Hagopian says. “We are walking the talk with our students to model the importance of leading self first in navigating real-world challenges — and demonstrating in our own ways the tremendous potential to affect positive change in the world as a nurse.”

Growing Diverse Leaders 

Only 7 percent of registered nurses in the United States report being of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity — a percentage that is disproportionately lower than the overall Latinx population, according to the 2022 National Nursing Workforce Survey.

Statistics like this one — coupled with the understanding that increasingly diverse patient populations deserve a diverse nursing workforce — drive the school to ensure its leadership initiatives focus on diversity. 

Each fall, the school participates in the Latino Youth Leadership Conference, where Latinx middle and high school students across the state visit participating Emory schools and explore educational pathways. Emory partners with the Latin American Association to host the conference.

During the conference, nursing student leaders run hands-on, health care-based learning stations for conference participants — introducing them to nursing school and the profession while sharing insights from their journey in the field. 

Lisa Nuñez, director of the school’s Lillian Carter Center for Global Health and Social Responsibility and a longtime conference volunteer, says the event instills leadership in both nursing students and conference attendees.

“The middle and high school students take the initiative to make connections and explore future pathways while the nursing students volunteer to uplift the community,” she adds. 

Fabiane Sención, an MSN-FNP student who has been involved with the conference for the past two years, says that the conference provides opportunities for Latinx students to see themselves represented in professional fields, including nursing and health care, which are crucial for fostering ambition and breaking barriers. 

“The conference opens doors to opportunities often scarce in our community,” she says.

In February, Sención joined fellow Latinx students Luis Espinosa, Hilario Morales, Cassie Ramos 24MN, Penelope Sugg 24BSN, and Leslie Trejo as policy scholars at the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) Hispanic Health Policy Summit in Washington, D.C. They participated in a panel discussion led by NAHN President Adrianna Nava, PhD, MPA, MSN, RN, who has been serving as a visiting professor at the school. Along with NAHN student member Kharen Bamaca-Forkel 24BSN, they met with Angela Ramirez, deputy chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams to advocate for Latinx health and nursing workforce policies.

Morales, a BSN student, said the conference was transformational, empowering him to use his voice and build his leadership muscle. 

“All of us felt honored to tell our stories, and our experiences solidified a deep appreciation for the powerful potential of story sharing to contribute to discussions and shape policies,” he says. “I learned how beautiful it is to share our perspectives because everyone’s upbringing is different, and we have much to bring to the table to create change.”