Actually, UVA Nursing Does Value Intellectual Diversity

Two days ago I posted an article about a seminar hosted by the UVA School of Nursing that discussed historical racism in the profession and maintained that “structural racism” and “bias” persists to this day. I took exception to the argument, and went on to suggest that UVA Nursing, and UVA generally, gives platforms to so-called “anti-racists” but not to anyone who contests their ideas.

Kim Acquaviva

Kimberly D. Acquaviva, a nursing faculty member who teaches U.S. health policy, vigorously disagrees. I present her response as a counterpoint to my article. — JAB

I read yesterday’s article about my colleague Dominique Tobell’s work and was disappointed you didn’t do your usual rigorous research before publishing it. Teaching nurses how to eradicate structural racism is something AACN, our accrediting body, calls upon us to do. Attached are screenshots of two of AACN’s advanced-level nursing education competencies.

You’re free to reject the existence of structural racism, but your argument is with AACN, not with Dr. Tobbell or the UVA School of Nursing.

I’d also like to correct an assertion you made. In your article, you wrote that “…Ryan has erected an administrative structure at the university level and Baernholdt at the nursing school that gives platforms to people like Gatrall and Tobbell, but not to anyone willing to contest their ideas.” This is patently false.

In the School of Nursing, we go to great lengths to ensure students are exposed to a broad spectrum of perspectives, as well as a variety of faculty members. One example of this is our graduate health policy course, a course I’ve taught (along with several of my colleagues) for the past 5 years since being recruited to UVA.

As the School of Nursing has shifted toward AACN’s competency-based education, we’ve taken a close look at the curricula to determine how best to meet the learning needs of students across all our programs. This isn’t unusual: As faculty in a school of nursing, we continuously look for opportunities to strengthen and refine our curricular offerings. Collectively, the faculty decided to replace the existing graduate health policy course with a new course that’s a combination economics/health policy course. That course will be taught by a conservative faculty member, and I’m confident that faculty member will teach in the same unbiased way that I have.

No one in the School of Nursing is silencing conservative voices — and no one is silencing left-leaning ones, either. Curricular decisions, decisions about which faculty teach which courses, and decisions about guest speakers are made independent of politics.

DISCLAIMER: These are just my opinions. I don’t represent the views of anyone in the School of Nursing, nor do I speak for anyone other than myself.

Kimberly D. Acquaviva is the Betty Norman Norris Endowed Professor at UVA School of Nursing and a member of the University of Virginia faculty senate.

 


ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)




Comments


Comments

34 responses to “Actually, UVA Nursing Does Value Intellectual Diversity”

  1. Kim, thank you for engaging in dialogue. Hearing your perspectives is helpful.

    I do have a couple of comments.

    (1) Thanks for explaining how the AACN has made the eradication of "structural racism" a condition of receiving accreditation. I was unaware that the policy was so explicit. Is there a condition that higher-ed institutions also practice intellectual diversity?

    (2) From our conversations, I knew about your health policy course in which you encourage students across the partisan divide to express themselves. I was not aware that an economics/health policy course will be taught by a conservative professor. That sounds like a positive — and recent — development. Might it be a response to the changing political climate (which was evidence even before Trump's election), a majority of Youngkin appointees on the Board of Visitors, and pressure from groups like the Jefferson Council?

    1. Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj Avatar
      Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj

      The decision to replace the health policy course with a health policy/economics course wasnโ€™t made in response to anything political. If it had been, I wouldnโ€™t hesitate to say so. The professor who will be teaching the new course happens to be conservative, but that has nothing to do with why they will be teaching the course. They have more expertise in economics than I do – it makes sense for them to teach it.

      We really do value intellectual diversity in the School of Nursing. We have faculty from across the political spectrum teaching in our programs, and all of us work diligently to teach students how to think, not what to think. It's one of the things I love most about teaching at UVA: our shared commitment to valuing diversity of thought.

      I'm not a representative of or spokesperson for UVA or the School of Nursing — these are just my personal opinions.

      Thanks for keeping the dialogue open, Jim. I appreciate it! โค๏ธ

      1. Lefty665 Avatar

        The use of they as a singular pronoun is likely an indicator of where one falls on the wokeness scale.

        Adulterating a course on health policy with economics is a curious choice. Economics is a "science" with so little rigorous underpinning that imposing it on health policy seems only likely to dilute health policy, no matter who is teaching it.

        Perhaps a quaint thought, but the school of nursing might be better off focusing on its area of expertise, nursing and health, and leaving economics to the geniuses in the B school.

      2. Clarity77 Avatar

        Are you able to reply to my earlier question?

  2. walter smith Avatar
    walter smith

    Prof Acquaviva attended the Jefferson Council Annual Meeting in April. I wanted to introduce myself, but she was gone when I went to the table. Former BOV Member DePasquale also attended (and I think was seated at the same PRIME (see, TJC supports free speech AND is polite) table, but he left early and he went CRAZY trying to get Bert Ellis to resign because he (BOV Member DeP) heard a speaker dispute the many lies about the Jefferson/Hemings relationship which he considered beyond the pale. (UVA has a retired professor who headed the Jefferson/Hemings Scholars Commission which concluded that the story was almost certainly not true, yet UVA promotes "facts" that are known not to be true). One would think a BOV member would at least know the basics of the story, but one would also think that perhaps Jim Ryan would like to promote the truth about it…unless one has a political agenda opposed to truth…just saying…)

    Anyway, I commend Prof Acquaviva for attending. She was a vocal participant in the Faculty Senate meeting where censuring Bert Ellis was discussed, and she based her determined opposition on "student safety" because he wanted to use a razor/scraper to remove the F UVA sign. I haven't heard her opinion on student safety concerns as to the Jew haters or what happened with the students getting killed. Those would seem of more concern than whatever "dangerous tool" Bert Ellis carried onto the sacred Lawn, threatening student safety.

    Her points about the Nursing Accreditation Standards are valid though. So, why are those the standards from the accreditation board? And, does she agree with them? I suspect she does, so saying the standards made me do it is a bit of a fig leaf, like the "free speech" statement is for the UVA Admin. True, robust, free-flowing free speech does not exist – not even within the 95% to the Left faculty – even the Leftist faculty members fear saying anything that is the slightest deviation from Leftodoxy.

    But this is how free speech works. She disagreed and told us why. Now I say why are those required standards? What do those have to do with providing excellent medical care? Nothing. They don't. This contagion affects all of academia and probably almost all accreditation boards. They need to be returned to sanity and excellence in their professions – period. Maybe this is also part of what is happening with the Parrhesiastes group…

  3. LarrytheG Avatar

    Not entirely sure who AACN is. I come up with two different nurse organizations.

    American Association of Colleges of Nursing
    AACN: American Association of Critical-Care Nurses

    I give credit (again) to JAB for allowing different viewpoints and
    diversity of viewpoints on his blog.

    CLEARLY, there are some in the medical professional who feel
    that this CONTINUES to be structural racism in the medical world.

    Jim and others have argued otherwise.

    I'd like to hear more from the folks who say there is and explain why
    that view is held.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      The former. Itโ€™s the accrediting agency.

  4. Clarity77 Avatar

    "No one in the School of Nursing is silencing conservative voices โ€” and no one is silencing left-leaning ones, either. Curricular decisions, decisions about which faculty teach which courses, and decisions about guest speakers are made independent of politics."

    At my old age, and after a long career in healthcare, I have grown to be even more wary of rigid, absolutist, tinged with authoritarianism statements such as the foregoing. And especially now in real time as the woke DEI orthodoxy has been thrust forcefully from on high onto medical academia.

    All this added to signals raised by way of developed intution as to her message verbage causes me to conclude more is to be revealed and will be forthcoming on this subject in the due course of time.

    1. Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj Avatar
      Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj

      I hate to disappoint you, Clarity77, but there really isn't more to the story than what I shared with Jim. Dialogue rather than divisiveness is how we operate in the School of Nursing. It's a pretty great place. ๐Ÿ™‚

      1. Clarity77 Avatar

        Thank you Kimberly. In 2022 I enjoyed participating in the One Small Step program to promote good dialogue techniques at UVA. It was sponsored by the Karsh Institute for Democracy and I wondered if you perhaps had participated in that program also?

  5. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    no comment on accuracy, or method, or selected โ€œdevelopedโ€ countries, but an interesting tidbit if real. Staff writer at The Atlantic.
    https://x.com/DKThomp/status/1854498882438181265

    1. walter smith Avatar
      walter smith

      Considering it was from The Atlantic, it would be hard to jump to "right wing" bias…
      Certainly observably true in US. Can explain Italy and Germany, but not UK, where Tories were so feckless for so long, they deseved to lose.

      1. Nancy Naive Avatar
        Nancy Naive

        Just eyeballing, thereโ€™s a definite downside bias for incumbents (more below than above. Hope&Change?) but since the pandemic, everyone went through inflationary pressures and we less than anyone. A unified reaction to that? Be cool to plot the mean inflation rate and vote loss rate per country. Might be really the only factor.

        1. Lefty665 Avatar

          Could it be as simple as performance reviews after widespread underwhelming governmental performances?

          1. Nancy Naive Avatar
            Nancy Naive

            By everyone? Thatโ€™s multiple countries.

  6. Lefty665 Avatar

    And your point is? Seems Europe has not done very well coping with covid and its disruptions. I couldn't pick out any government that has done a stellar job. It is not surprising that people all over are out of sorts and advocating change.

    Whether that change will be for the better is another story. If not we are likely on the front end of even more change.

    How's the old line go? The beatings will continue until morale improves. ๐Ÿ™‚

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      Covid is not reflected in the 2021 and 2023 elections.

      1. Lefty665 Avatar

        Oh? Ok, I'll generalize, governments have not done so well over the last half century that people are inclined to like them very much. Certainly there are instances where things have gone well and people are happy, but that hasn't been so widespread as to be the norm.

        Our presidents, after JFK, have left a lot, and the trend is increasingly, to be desired. Same with a lot of places in the world. Us humans is fallible. Pogo had it right with "We have met the enemy and he is us". Vote 'em out, try another way until something works.

  7. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    Weโ€™re still here. And all those guys had nukes. They didnโ€™t kill us all. Iโ€™d say they did great. As far as economic performance goes, itโ€™s a game. There are no rules, no immutable laws. If you do something that works, the game changes to blunt or accentuate it the next time. Itโ€™s like one of those impossible sci-fi critters. Thatโ€™s why everybody is wrong.

    1. Nancy Naive Avatar
      Nancy Naive

      I set a low bar.

    2. Lefty665 Avatar

      If great means lucky, then yeah. We also were fortunate that a couple of folks, including Soviets, stood up and said no when the world was on the brink. We're every bit as close today and we've abrogated several of the nuclear treaties that were restraints. Today the raving lunatics in the middle east have nukes. What could go wrong?

      Recently, domestically, and specifically with inflation, the inmates were running the asylum. They were running with "modern monetary theory" lunacy that posited that governments could print as much money as they wanted without causing inflation. Turns out they were wrong, as was obvious to all of us geezers who went through the inflation of the late '70s. It's a gift that keeps on giving with interest payments sopping up ever bigger portions of the budget and structural deficits approaching $2T a year and, wait there's more, both candidates competing on how many taxes they're going to cut. You can't make this stuff up. The solution ain't stopping the grocery store from price gouging either. That so profoundly under perceives the problem we are fortunate it was not elected, that is not to suggest we may have done much better.

      That brings me back to governments doing poorly is significantly cause, not effect, of people wanting to turn them out. At least our last 5 presidents have been bozos in one way or another. Not necessarily dumb, but doing silly things with our country and the world, and often wrapped in the flag. Many other countries appear to be in the same boat.

  8. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    I'm surprised UVA uses the term School of Nursing. Nurse. It has feminine roots back to the Latin language. In Japan the word nurse, ็œ‹่ญทๅธซ or kagooshi. Gender neutral. UVA School of ็œ‹่ญทๅธซ. Very unique.

  9. Nancy Naive Avatar
    Nancy Naive

    DEI in the Age of Trumpโ€ฆ
    https://people.com/fbi-is-aware-of-offensive-and-racist-text-messages-sent-across-multiple-states-after-election-day-8741966

    โ€The FBI is awareโ€ฆโ€ but wonโ€™t be allowed to investigate come January.
    โ€œThe (Virginia) Attorney Generalโ€™s Office is awareโ€ฆโ€ but wonโ€™t do anything now.

    1. What should the FBI or Virginia AG do about it?

      I saw a news story this morning about the messages. They were so incredibly lame that as far as I am concerned, anyone who was intimidated by them is a weak-minded member of the perpetual-victim class.

      And besides, it's just as likely those messages were send by democrats/progressives as by republicans/conservatives.

  10. Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj Avatar
    Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj

    Hi, Lefty665 – nice to (virtually) meet you!

    I used "they" as a singular pronoun in my response to Jim not because I'm "woke" but rather, because the gender of the person I was referring to wasn't relevant to the point I was trying to make. You've probably used "they" as a singular pronoun before, too — you just didn't realize it. Imagine if you were leaving a meeting and you noticed a laptop on the table as the conference room was emptying out. You'd probably say something like, "Did someone forget their laptop?" Pronoun use isn't an indicator of a person's politics, but confirmation bias can lead people to think that it is.

    The Oxford English Dictionary has a brief piece on their website about the use of "they" as a singular pronoun: https://www.oed.com/discover/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/ The author of the piece, Dennis Barron, concludes with this: "People who want to be inclusive, or respectful of other peopleโ€™s preferences, use singular they. And people who donโ€™t want to be inclusive, or who donโ€™t respect other peopleโ€™s pronoun choices, use singular they as well. Even people who object to singular they as a grammatical error use it themselves when theyโ€™re not looking, a sure sign that anyone who objects to singular they is, if not a fool or an idiot, at least hopelessly out of date." I don't think you're either "a fool or an idiot," for the record. ๐Ÿ™‚

    Regarding the decision to blend economics with health policy in the new course, the new course will incorporate both economics and finance. Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs) need to understand the interplay between health policy and finances in a competitive market because nursing's "area of expertise" includes healthcare finance and the economics of healthcare delivery.

    Thanks again for the discussion, Lefty665. I appreciate it!

    1. Lefty665 Avatar

      Hi Kimberly, nice to meet you virtually too:)

      Nice try, but no cigar. Conflating the plural pronoun they with the possessive case their doesn't work. It was however an interesting academic exercise in obfuscation that tends to confirm my suggestion.

      In our society with health care, as with most things, unlimited wants confrontation with limited means determines price, and price is how we allocate means. It is pretty simple. UVa health, and most other health systems, adjust for this imbalance through indigent care and writing off bad debts.

      Do Advanced Practice Registered Nurses do a finance check and refuse care based on ability to pay? I hope that is not the case. If it is not, the time and resources spent by advanced practice registered nurses on patient finances is lost to actually providing health care.

      <i>"the interplay between health policy and finances in a competitive market</i> sounds like someone has been spending too much time hanging around the B school (my education, but not at UVa) picking up jargon. Curiously, I have never had a vision of the practice of medicine as a competition between providers of health care in a competitive market.

      Perhaps my vision of separation of functions with health care as a profession devoted to healing the sick, and finance the province of bean counters is naive. But, that is sort of what they taught us in B school, that successful organizations employ people with expertise in what they do, to do it and to do it well. They what is running the production line are not the thems doing finance or marketing.

      As I noted in my other post, I'd encourage the nursing school to stick to its area of competency, nursing and providing health care. Dabbling in economics is only likely to dilute your expertise in your profession.

      Thank you for coming and hanging out. Your exposition of what y'all are doing is interesting and it makes for a better discussion than we sometimes have around here. I hope that we have at least a little something of interest to contribute to the conversation in return.

      ps: A message of appreciation for nurses. I long ago learned that if I really wanted to know what was going on with my health care I was often better off asking the nurse than the doc.:)

  11. Lefty665 Avatar

    Curious. In pursuit of AACN's competency-based education (why the hyphen? does based mean something other than what it commonly means here?) the nursing school is pasting a field with the least rigorous underpinnings, economics, onto a course on health policy. Even worse for health policy, economics is the lead in the newly revised course economics/health policy. That is headed full tilt away from competency-based education.

    Perhaps the collective faculty of the school of nursing should stick to something it presumably knows something about, teaching students how to be competent nurses caring well for sick people. Leave economics, a flaky field about which it clearly knows nothing or it would not have conflated it with health policy, to the flights of fancy in the Econ department.

    Get back to teaching students who want to learn about your area of competency, nursing. The KISS principle still applies even in the rarefied academic atmosphere at UVa.

  12. Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj Avatar
    Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj

    Hi Clarity77 – Iโ€™m so sorry but I need to get back to my other duties. As much as Iโ€™d love to spend more time in discussion with folks here, I have grading to do. I hope youโ€™ll understand. Have a great day!

    1. Clarity77 Avatar

      My question only required a simple yes or no in response, and nothing more as to a lengthy discussion.

      So in the time Kimberly took to respond instead of a simple yes or no she opted to not give an answer but interestingly found time instead to develop an excuse as to why she could not answer.

      Quite interesting for someone who earlier maintained she was a proponent of dialogue and diversity of thought. I am not surprised, but once again as a reflection on the current climate at UVA as exemplified in this case by a faculty member interacting with an alumnus who has contributed significant amounts of support over the years, it speaks volumes as to saying one thing while doing another. Not impressive to say the least and certainly not conducive to future contributions by this alumnus or my network of fellow UVA alumni when I relate to them this latest interaction.

      "I have grading to do." Nonsense.

      1. Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj Avatar
        Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj

        I meant no offense, Clarity77. Please accept my apologies for prioritizing the work UVA pays me to do over chatting with you here in the comment section. (I hope the fact that Iโ€™m teasing you good-naturedly comes across here. ๐Ÿ˜‰)

        Since youโ€™re a donor, Iโ€™m sure you can understand why I prioritize teaching in carrying out my work as a faculty member. I appreciate the generous contributions you and other alumni have made to UVA. I suspect we all share a deep commitment to delivering the best education possible to UVA students. You and I arenโ€™t that different from one another. I just happen to have more grading to do. ๐Ÿ˜Š

        Regarding the question you posed โ€”โ€œDo Advanced Practice Registered Nurses do a finance check and refuse care based on ability to pay? โ€œ โ€” the answer is a resounding no. Nurses do far more than provide bedside care, though. They need to understand the financial aspects of healthcare delivery in order to lead and participate in policymaking efforts.

        I originally engaged in this discussion with Jim because I wanted to clear up what I thought was a misperception on his part of the School of Nursingโ€™s commitment to intellectual diversity. I did so in good faith, not out of a desire to argue with anyone. Iโ€™ve enjoyed the dialogue with you here, and I hope we can continue it in person. I mean that sincerely: if youโ€™re willing to shed that comfy cloak of anonymity, Iโ€™d love to buy you a cup of coffee and get to know you better. My email address is kda8xj [at] virginia.edu. Donโ€™t worry: I have no intention of โ€œoutingโ€ or unmasking you to anyone. Youโ€™d only be shrugging off that cloak of anonymity with me so that we could meet for coffee. ๐Ÿ™‚

        Iโ€™m going to politely excuse myself from the comment section now. Have a lovely weekend!

        Kim

  13. Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj Avatar
    Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj

    Clarity77, I erroneously quoted another userโ€™s question to me. What question were you wanting me to answer?

    1. Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj Avatar
      Acquaviva, Kimberly D. (kda8xj

      Clarity77, if you were referring to your question about One Small Step, the answer is no. I havenโ€™t participated in the program but Iโ€™ve heard very good things about it.

      Iโ€™m sorry I missed that question earlier. Youโ€™re absolutely correct that answering it would have only taken me a second. The oversight was mine and mine alone.

  14. Clarity77 Avatar

    Not a good look. Not a good look at all. Instead of "I meant no offense" more authentic would be "I now understand that how I interacted was offensive." And especially in the context of the interaction occurring between two fellow UVA identified individuals. We hold ourselves to a higher standard or at least that was how I was taught when I was a student in the early '70's. And that is why this interaction is especially concerning to me with a current faculty member.

    The focus though is on the current student experience especially now in a leftist woke environment and it is easy to see how Kimberly's manner of interaction she now looking back, obviously unwittingly, revealed to an alumnus who is in very different circumstances than had I been one of her students. In a nutshell her approach was not modified towards me, or even IMO from her first response to JAB, from what she uses in the classroom. And that is very concerning.

    Her tone as received as I earlier pointed out in quoting her was such as to be stridently harsh to the point of being controlling or authoritarian. Such is expected for instance in a military school environment where for good reason it is used but not in the context of a liberal arts university where if the art of persuasion is to be taught as in the One Small Step course I took sponsored by the Karsh Institute for Democracy, and which I questioned her as to whether she had attended. Of course I knew in asking the question that she had not, but chose to ask so as to simply verify.

    Kimberly no doubt is highly intelligent as to be expected for any UVA faculty hire. But what good is having that onboard if in the arena of reasoned debate as envisioned by Jefferson for his University her tone causes the recipient to step back, not feel safe, and thereby to question the validity of what she says even if it is in fact actual truth?

    In my humble diagnosis this is how the pursuit of truth is perverted present day at UVA. Not by any lack of intelligence but by way of a politically motivated perverted woke ideology, which is overtly and especially subconsciously engendered such that its effect is to negate self awareness. Once she stopped and realized she was dealing with an alumnus over which she has no power, in contrast to a student, she was forced to look at herself in the mirror. Ahhhhh now self awareness is accessed which Aristotle long ago specifically identified as the very basis of wisdom. And which Socrates built on as to then formulating his Socratic technique of asking simple questions as I did which causes the other to stop, consider and take ownership of what they are doing or saying.

    One final point, there is no doubt as to this woke ideology originating in Marxism, an ideology which is patently evil as it purposely is designed to cause anger, hate and divisiveness amongst God's creation. Wisdom is thereby destroyed by way of a lack of self awareness on the part of those employing Marxist behavior. As we have witnessed in this country the use of bully tactics is front and center to the promotion of Marxism or woke ideology in academia. Such that you have now as the two previous BR articles elucidate the effect of bullying on forcing UVA students to be silenced regardless of political leaning. Right of left.

    Kimberly's approach in this discussion was such as to give me a feeling of being bullied. Key to bullying is the issue of power which can easily be seen as working with a student but certainly not with an alumnus. Kimberly is not alone at UVA as I have personally experienced the same at events open to the public when I have asked similar simple questions. "Take his mic away!" as was yelled at me at a memorable Miller Center event.

    What the woke left hates most is someone who is not cowed, intimidated, or who acts out of no fear in the face of their bullying. Behind every bully is in fact a coward, and that is all I see when confronted by their antics. And that is why they hate Trump at a visceral level. The American people are wise ss evident in their voting for Trump, which has caused a collapse of the woke insanity. But which the left chooses to further turn a blind eye to. Think the final scene as to the crash and burn of the Wicked Witch of the Left in the Wizard of Woke.

    So Kimberly if you do take time to read my response, I would like, as I have done many times now with UVA faculty and administration all the way up to Ryan, to accept your invitation to coffee. I have fond memories of the School of Nursing while an undergrad, the affinity for which is in no way diminished by any differences in our interchange. As Jefferson's spirit indeed lives on as Adams first voiced. In full disclosure though you should know I am an ardent supporter of President Trump and if that is too much for you then I will accept if you so choose to not share ideas over a cup of coffee(knowledge?). Either way I look forward to your response as this is a dialogue, right?

Leave a Reply


ADVERTISEMENT