September 9, 2022

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Climate Survey opens Sept. 13

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Climate Survey opens to the VUMC Community today, Sept. 13, and is the latest step toward cultivating an inclusive, respectful VUMC environment – one that is free from discrimination and racism.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion partnered with Human Resources to design the Climate Survey to assess VUMC’s current culture of inclusivity and the sense of belonging among our workforce.

Survey questions cover four main themes: ability to be one’s self at VUMC; how managers, supervisors, and leadership promote and value diversity and inclusion; the overall culture of diversity and inclusion within one’s work team, unit, or department; and personal work experiences with microaggressions and bias. Microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that send negative messages to certain individuals because of their group membership (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, social class, and disability status).

The Climate Survey opens today and runs through Sept. 27. Each person will receive an email with a unique link. Survey participation is voluntary, and all responses are confidential. Demographic information is also voluntary and confidential.

The survey includes 41 questions and takes approximately 25 minutes to complete. Participants can complete the survey in multiple sittings.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion will share survey results enterprise-wide by December 2022.

This Climate Survey is a key action in VUMC’s Racial Equity Plan, which includes eight thematic areas and 196 specific actions that VUMC and VUSM will take to advance racial equity. The actions are distributed across clinical, educational and research missions and the leaders responsible and accountable for each are identified.