Commitment to Diversity and Culturally Competent Healthcare Providers

Natural healthcare is for everyone. NWHSU is committed to fostering a culture built on diversity and inclusion to create pathways to healing for all communities.

Diversity and inclusion are part of everything we do

Our responsibility at NWHSU is to ensure that we have an inclusive, diverse, and safe environment for all members of the University community and communities we serve. This responsibility includes:

Curriculum development that addresses how we train health care providers for culturally competent healthcare delivery
University and program learning outcomes, which direct our awareness and sensitivity to the need for patient-centered healthcare practices
Training, programs and policies for professional development
Our diversity scholarship programs
Student-run clubs and organizations
Partnerships with schools, community service agencies and organizations committed to diversity work

Curriculum That Reflects a Diverse Community

We’ve developed curriculum to reflect our vibrant and diverse communities, and developed practices, programs and policies to support the cultural competency of our faculty and staff. We offer special scholarships, host cultural clubs, and engage in K-12 outreach in underserved and underrepresented communities.

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program is accepting membership applications for the following committees: Curriculum, Student, Development, and Employee Development. Please Apply! Contact Kim Pearce, Vice President of Academic Affairs for more information.

Being a diversity scholar in the massage therapy program has impacted me in different ways at NWHSU.

Receiving this scholarship made it financially possible for me to attend NWHSU and follow my dreams of becoming a massage therapist. It is comforting to know there are faculty and students here at NWHSU who are passionate about creating positive social change to make our school and the world more just and welcoming for all people. I am excited to graduate this December and use the skills I learned to help marginalized communities be as healthy as they can be.

Cyarra Swanson - Massage Therapy

Pride in Our Community

Our focus on integrating health care modalities and providing a multicultural and multidisciplinary health care education shows that we go above and beyond what is required for a general health care education. We:

Are committed to honoring and teaching about the cultural traditions, beliefs, values and behaviors for general contexts and health care settings
We offer in-class and clinical opportunities to learn health care cultural competency
We provide diversity scholarships to encourage an active commitment to diversity, inclusion, social justice and equity while studying at NWHSU
We endow our student voice with the ability to make change happen on our small, close-knit campus
We provide on-campus, off-campus and international integrative clinical experiences
We bring people together, embrace similarity and difference, and celebrate our courage in our convictions

Our Values

NWHSU is a unified university community dedicated to a providing a quality health care education to our students and health care to our patients. Our ultimate goals of respect, wellness, dignity and happiness for everyone make us unique in how we serve. These goals are accomplished through academic, co-curricular and clinical education.

We Value:

An integrative and culturally competent health care education experience
Access to health care and education for everyone
Local and global opportunities to serve
Change and growth through healthy debate
Helping, supporting, and empowering our community members
The commitment our volunteers and stakeholders have taken to support the diversity effort

Cultural Clubs and Organization

Your time at NWHSU includes the chance to further your cultural knowledge, gain further education in diversity, and become advocates for inclusion in healthcare. You can also have a lot of fun. We have a wide range of cultural student groups on campus, including:

Asian Culture Club
Canadian Club
Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA)
Hmong Language Club
Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Club
League of Chiropractic Women – an Academic and Technique Club
Mandarin Language Club
Secular Student Alliance (SSA)
Students Serving Veterans (SSV)
The Rock
Spanish Language Club

This diversity scholarship has helped me by saving me time from working to contribute time working in my community.

With that support I can participate in the student activities and clubs at school like Student Senate, Student Ambassador, Hmong Language and Asian Club, Diversity club and the Herbal club. By being able to participate in these clubs I can represent my classmates, help add better changes to their program, and get them connected to organizations of different community in Minnesota.

Seng Lao - Acupuncture

The NWHSU community acknowledges the dignity of all human beings and resolves to treat all people with respect and equality. We recognize and value the diversity of identities among us. Some of these identities include but are not limited to: culture, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, ideology, socioeconomic status, sex, gender, sexual orientation, abilities, religion, spirituality, and family. We welcome everyone to our University.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

The commitment of the Northwestern Health Sciences University community to integrate diversity and inclusion values into all aspects of the University’s culture is comprehensive. Our commitment is demonstrated through:

Curriculum development that addresses how we train health care providers for culturally competent healthcare delivery
University and program learning outcomes, which direct our awareness and sensitivity to the need for patient-centered healthcare practices
Training, programs and policies for professional development
Our diversity scholarship programs – Diversity Scholarship for Incoming Students and Diversity Leadership Scholarship (for current students)
Student-run clubs and organizations
Partnerships with schools, community service agencies and organizations committed to diversity work

Our Purpose and Responsibility

Office of Diversity and Inclusion

Our purpose
The purpose of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion is to create a richer understanding of humanity, education, and health care.

Our responsibility
Our responsibility to NWHSU is to ensure that we have an inclusive, diverse, and safe environment for all members of the University community and communities we serve.

To fulfill our purpose and responsibility:

We treat everyone with genuine respect and dignity
We foster cultural competency
We challenge unconscious bias
We cultivate local and global access to health care and education
We champion equity in all that we do

The Diversity and Inclusion Scholarship has been one of the greatest opportunities I have been awarded.

The scholarship has reduced stress levels, improved the balance of work and life, while providing me more focused studying time. It has also offered me community and a place to stay connected to the mission of the program within NWHSU along with insight into the challenges of others.

Melissa Franklin - Acupuncture