Overview
The Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN) Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Cultural Connections Network, a student affinity group aims to bring together DNP students of all backgrounds to celebrate and advocate for increased representation of all groups in the nursing profession. We serve as a platform for DNP students who identify with an underrepresented groups in nursing. We embrace and celebrate all ethnicities, races, nationalities, gender identities, cultures, sexual orientations, and abilities that create a community of nurse leaders and scholars within the VUSN DNP program. We strive to promote an environment that promotes a sense of belonging where everyone feels valued and deeply connected.
We are intentional in our vision to optimize the visibility, recruitment, and support of nurse leaders by promoting their unique attributes and contributions to the nursing profession. Our organization provides a safe and supportive space for gaining insight and understanding of intersectionality in health care through social engagement, networking, and professional learning opportunities to improve the quality of health care delivered to all patient populations including those where health disparities continue. The DNP Cultural Connections Network aims to help nurse leaders broaden their perspectives on emancipatory knowing to foster strategies that support the plurality of community, perspectives and values in all of their professional domains.
Group Leadership
Student Leadership
Daphny Peneza, President
Faculty advisor(s)
- Carol ZIegler
Mission
The mission of the Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN) Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Cultural Connections Network, a student affinity group, is to foster a safe and welcoming community that is appreciative and respectful of differences among all VUSN DNP students by promoting support, setting expectations, offering space for open communication, and creating resources to celebrate and elevate our professional and academic environments.
History
The VUSN DNP Student Diversity Group now the DNP Cultural Connections Network inaugural meeting was on August 29, 2018, when the group met to acknowledge the group membership and group advisors, Dr. Susie Leming-Lee and Dr. Mary Lambert. There after every semester, during the DNP Intensive, the group has met to introduce new members and to carry out various group activities and address any group business. In the fall of 2020, the first student officers were elected and officially applied to become a Vanderbilt University registered affinity group. Those officers were President: Frances Gaudier, Vice President: Sofia Ray, Secretary: Zsanett Williams, and Treasurer: Kathleen McKean. The VUSN DNP Student Diversity Affinity Group was established to celebrate all types of differences and perspectives within the VUSN DNP community.
Membership
All DNP students are welcome to join this group. Members of this organization will be any DNP students who voluntarily join this organization because they support the plurality of community, perspectives and values within the DNP program, Vanderbilt University, and the nursing profession.