Strategic Plan – Our School – UCI Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing

Strategic Plan

2024-2029

Over the past year, we collected input from faculty, students, staff, alumni, donors and friends, and health partners to identify and prioritize the greatest health needs and address possible solutions. This was an intense community wide effort and we thank everyone who participated. You can learn more about our ambitious and meaningful vision to improve health and bring about a better world in our Strategic Plan.

Our Strategic Pillars

Lessening Human Vulnerability

To lessen human vulnerability is an ambitious aim, not least because of the degree to which social and racial injustices and individual and structural racism create and compound vulnerability – over multiple generations – in our world today. Injustices create injuries. As nurses, we address injuries, and thus, we address wrongs. There are many ways to address wrongs, but we have chosen to address them, and the injuries they result in, through the lens of social and racial justice.

Making the Invisible Visible

Our graduates, colleagues, and faculty work with some of society’s most ignored and invisible individuals: people who find themselves excluded from systems of housing, employment, healthcare, food security, or social services because of their personal characteristics, physical location, the language that they speak, or some other factor. We do this because we see each other, human to human, and we are there for each other, because we advocate for others to get the care and assistance that they need, and because in our clinical practice and research, we identify, examine, and challenge the experiences that others face. Our research enables us to amass evidence that supports the case for social and racial justice, and to provide solutions, interventions, and new approaches focused on achieving health equity.

Advancing the World’s Health as Human Health

Our school originated in response to overwhelming local need for professional nursing care and, to this day, the needs of the marginalized groups of people in Orange County and surrounding areas remain a central priority. However, the health inequities caused and compounded by social and racial injustice are (unfortunately) by no means confined to our county, state, or country. We are a rigorous academic organization within a world-class university, and as such we will continue to increase our national and international participation.

Increasing Our Capacity

Excellence and focus draw funds: by pinpointing our specialties and by increasing the numbers of nurse leaders we educate and train, we will similarly increase the scope of sources from which we attract funding to our school. We will work to further identify and consolidate relationships with advocates and champions locally and nationally in pursuit of funds to support and expand our essential work.

Our Strategic Priorities

We Create Nursing Leaders

In all its programs, the Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing emphasizes the opportunities and necessity for nurses to pursue leadership careers focused on creating a healthier and more just society. Our graduates, moreover, can be confident in leading within the profession, and of advocating for the conditions in which nurses do their vital work of care.

We Strive for Inclusive Excellence and Antiracism

As nurses, we address injuries, and thus, we address wrongs. There are many ways to address wrongs, but we have chosen to address them, and the injuries they result in, through the lens of social and racial justice. We aim to educate and inspire nurses to lead on matters of justice. Nursing should reflect the communities we serve. It is therefore a significant priority for the school to recruit and retain a diversity of staff, faculty, and students, and to ensure that people feel a sense of belonging in their place of work, study or in any other interaction with us, regardless of their personal characteristics.

We Advocate for Patients and Families

Our graduates, colleagues, and faculty work with some of society’s most ignored and invisible people: people who find themselves excluded from systems of housing, employment, healthcare, food security, or social services because of their personal characteristics, physical location, the language that they speak, or some other factor. We do not accept that things are as they should be: We advocate for change. We will develop our institutional skills of communication and connection to ensure that our results are seen by the relevant administrators and policy makers, as well as other educators, clinicians, and researchers, at the highest level appropriate.

We Promote Our Profession

All too often, the work of nurses goes unnoticed. Nurses need educational opportunities and a professional development infrastructure to progress, and to feel fulfilled by, their careers. They also need to be recognized by their colleagues in healthcare, in academia, and in government for the difference that they make. We strive to help improve nurses’ workplace satisfaction and their ability to do the work they have been trained to do. Additionally, we will continue to campaign for the legislative and policy changes that empower nurses to practice most effectively, and to the full extent of their licenses.

We Leverage Technology

The Sue & Bill Gross School of Nursing recognizes the rich potential of informatics and artificial intelligence for nursing research. The rise of informatics and data technology gives nurse researchers the opportunity to analyze and represent care and wellbeing in quantitative terms – a powerful tool. The associated fields of AI and wearable technology are opening new avenues for responsive, personalized treatment and for safeguarding and promoting health. As the potential of these developments grows, the importance of inclusion is amplified as never before, especially for nursing practice.

We Seek Out Knowledge

To be a nurse is to help other humans. Yet we live at a time in which all human health is inextricably involved in a crisis of planetary health. Because environmental catastrophe affects minoritized populations first and most severely, concern for the world’s health is doubly within our remit. We will continue our work on the impact of environmental catastrophe, looking at nursing’s role in ameliorating these impacts, and accelerate our efforts to educate ourselves as to what form environmental threats to health may take, whether through disease or disaster, or long-term exposure to pollution and a degraded environment.

We Care for Our World

We Embrace a World Community

Our school originated in response to overwhelming local need for professional nursing care and, to this day, the needs of the marginalized groups of people in Orange County and surrounding areas remain a central priority. However, the health inequities caused and compounded by social and racial injustice are (unfortunately) by no means confined to our county, state, or country. We will therefore further develop relationships with international institutions, and welcome to our campus colleagues, researchers, and students from around the globe. Just as the planet’s health is human health, the health of all humans around the globe is the health of us all.

We Align Our Resources with Our Strategic Priorities

To ensure that the school’s achievements keep pace with our ambition, we need to find ways to increase capacity while retaining the rigor, intimacy, and the personalized experience that are currently hallmarks of our school. By pinpointing our specialties and by increasing the numbers of nurse leaders we educate and train, we will similarly increase the scope of sources from which we attract funding to our school.

We Attract Increased Investment

The work of the Sue & Bill Gross School of nursing is only just beginning to be recognized. In the course of pursuing our core beliefs, we will promote the profession tirelessly promote the profession of nursing and the importance of nursing research and education to human health in Orange County, in California, and to the country and society in which we all live. Increasing numbers of alumni and faculty alike are also our advocates and proof of excellence. We will further identify and consolidate relationships with advocates and champions locally and nationally in pursuit of funds to support and expand our essential work.

Conclusion

From the furthest reaches of our history to the priorities of our newest students, we know our purpose. We exist to lessen vulnerability, to promote social, racial, and environmental justice, and to deliver compassionate nursing care of the highest standard in the most equitable and accessible way possible – and always with humanity in mind. We do this through our education, our research, and our practice; through our advocacy, our collaboration – and through cherishing our profession. We will build centers of research excellence and translate evidence into practice. We will continue to raise the profile of our school and what it stands for: for the sake of our profession, current and future, and most of all, for the sake of humanity.

View Strategic Plan (PDF)