This month's cover features students from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing in Baltimore, Maryland. The school is a five-time recipient of the INSIGHT into Diversity Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity Award and a four-time recipient of the Best School for Men in Nursing award. In 2022, the school increased representation among its students and faculty by implementing an integrated approach to recruitment and belonging; it also formed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Council to promote institutional and cultural change and to model nursing's commitment to health equity and social justice.
"Achieving true health equity will require all people to feel they belong in nursing," says Sarah L. Szanton, PhD, RN, FAAN, the school's dean. "Building an environment in which all kinds of nurses can lead with their own strengths and perspectives is vital to what we do at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing."
In this issue, Marissa Johnson and colleagues present a study they conducted to explore diversity in gender and skin tone in online images of health care professionals and students-and discuss how underrepresentation in these depictions may be detrimental to diversity and inclusivity within the nursing profession and could contribute to the nursing shortage. They note that a lack of diversity and inclusivity-which they posit "should be nonnegotiable in all professional environments"-can negatively affect nursing care, nursing research, career advancement, and recruitment and retention. For more, read "Original Research: 'Do I See Myself?' Exploring the Potential for Online Images to Attract a Diverse Nursing Workforce."-Diane Szulecki, editor