Mission

The Georgetown University School of Nursing, an inclusive, diverse academic community, excels in innovative and values-based education, leadership, practice, research, scholarship, and service. In the Jesuit tradition, we are committed to the formation of ethical, empathetic, and transformational nursing leaders who are committed to lifelong learning, shared decision-making, and individual and community self-determination. Within this just culture of reciprocal accountability, trust, and respect, the school advances health and health equity in partnership with individuals, families, and communities.

Vision

Georgetown University School of Nursing will be nationally recognized as a leading educational institution in nursing that creates and develops nurses to advance social justice, dismantle oppressive conditions, promote health equity for all, and shape the future of nursing. This will be achieved through the pursuit of excellence, innovation, critical consciousness and leadership in education, practice, research, scholarship, and service.

Values

Georgetown University School of Nursing (GUSON) commits to Jesuit values which guide our approach in all that we do. Our values bind us culturally and permeate our strategic initiatives. They are the defining traits of the Georgetown University community.

Contemplation in Action

Action-oriented introspection and reflection guide our self-understanding relative to our mission, choices, intellectual inquiry, and engagement with the world.

Cura Personalis

Caring for the whole person, a cornerstone of the Jesuit tradition, centers giving personalized attention to individuals’ unique needs and circumstances, including spirituality, as well as, a celebration of the special talents they contribute to communities.

Diversity

Representation which draws upon unique perspectives that actively support an environment where commonalities and differences contribute to its distinctiveness.

Excellence

Strive to promote the highest quality in everything we do with a commitment to integrity.

Respect

Recognize the range of perspectives and talents among students, faculty, staff, and the broader community. GUSON promotes positive, productive, and professional interactions, and encourages individuals to voice differing viewpoints in a way that assumes the best intention.

Social Justice

Create a more just society through support of intellectual growth and professional aspirations of individuals from all backgrounds and the creation and dissemination of knowledge that promotes equity in health with a focus on the social determinants of health and human rights.

Value of the Common Good

Alignment around a unified goal of collective responsibility that promotes maximum health and human flourishing for all with a special emphasis on those who are marginalized, disinvested in, and subjugated.

Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Justice Declaration

Georgetown University School of Nursing, consistent with Georgetown’s Catholic, Jesuit identity, supports an academic environment that is equitable, diverse, inclusive, and respectful. We commit to building upon and promoting this work through humility and the transparent practices, policies, resources, and values of our academic community. Within this just culture, advocacy is expected and promoted to discourage, and actively intervene when there is unacceptable behavior.

Bias, discrimination, prejudice, racism, and other oppressive mechanisms threaten our collective humanity by harming the ability of individuals and communities to truly flourish. These harms may be directed at persons and/or communities, expressed overtly or implicitly, and occur at the interpersonal, institutional, and structural levels. These mechanisms are in direct conflict with our values of equity, diversity, belonging, justice, and the common good.

The GUSON strives to promote health equity and spurns racism, faith-based persecution, discrimination against transgender and gender diverse people, sexism, heterosexism, ageism, ableism, ethnocentrism, sizeism, and others. Understanding intersectionality, the connections among these identities, and power relations are paramount to advancing justice and equity.

Mission and Commitment to Antiracism

The GUSON is committed to advancing racial justice through awareness and action, seamlessly integrating antiracist education in our learning, clinical spaces, and research, and focusing on cultural safety for learners across our programs. Universalizing and institutionalizing a racial-justice approach to health care will enhance care provided to individuals, families, and communities. Our commitment to a better future requires an honest examination of the past and the present, actively leaning into discomfort to understand, learn and create change where injustice exists.

The GUSON developmental path towards anti-racism efforts encompasses:

• Individual work: Enhance self-learning about race, racism, antiracism, and the impact of power, privilege, and oppression on our learners, clients, communities, and each other.
• Proximal work: Recognize and understand how racism informs how individuals interact with each other and in their local environments.
• Institutional work: Confront and dismantle institutional racism and promote racial justice in nursing programs and GUSON.
• Structural work: Advance changing systemic policies and practices at Georgetown University that impede racial justice.