Authors

  1. Salguero, Rachael MSN, RN-BC, CNEcl
  2. Wocial, Julika MS, BSN, RN

Article Content

Many nurse educators find it challenging to incorporate inclusivity into the classroom in an effort to translate it into nursing practice. Terminologies that are inaccurately defining individuals, and are not inclusive, are embedded into everyday language. For example, a person with a substance use disorder is often referred to as an addict. Case studies often assume the gender of a patient instead of using pronouns. An innovative teaching tip is to add an inclusive language tip of the day at the start of every class to bring attention to this terminology. Nurse educators may choose to correlate the inclusive language tip to the assigned class topic. For example, when teaching neurology, the nurse educator may choose to use a person with a traumatic brain injury versus brain damaged. When teaching alcohol withdrawal, the nurse educator may choose to use a person with an alcohol use disorder instead of an alcoholic. The integration of an inclusive language tip at the beginning of each class cultivates an inclusive learning environment, empowers students, and raises awareness to the power of words.