News
When UAB School of Nursing (SON) set out to improve student retention and graduation rates, they employed an HPU (Health Promoting University) approach.
Rather than focusing “downstream” --which concentrates on “pulling people out of the water after they’ve fallen in” --they went upstream to see why people were falling in.
The downstream issue for SON was attrition--or the number of students who enter a program but leave before completing it--which by the 2020-2021 school year had reached 22% for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program (BSN) and 19% for the Accelerated Master’s in Nursing Program (AMNP).
By using a social justice framework centered on social determinants-- the conditions of where we are born, live, learn, work, play and worship—UAB SON thoughtfully designed the Student Success Champion Program (SSCP), identifying a bundle of evidence-based “best practices” that were then integrated into a comprehensive plan. A major outcome was the formulation of a new curriculum framework. Their holistic approach illustrates HPU principles in action.
The National Center on Health, Physical Activity, and Disability (NCHPAD) moved from the University of Illinois at Chicago to UAB in 1999.
The move has been pivotal in its growth as the national leader in promoting the health and wellbeing of people with disabilities. With a YouTube channel reaching over 30,000 subscribers, it creates a transformational teaching and learning environment that provides content around the world, enabling and inspiring communities to become healthy and engaged citizens and leaders. NCHPD exemplifies HPU values through its multi-sectoral engagement that takes an explicit stance in favor of health, equity, social justice and sustainability for all.
Read More
UAB Sustainability continually exemplifies HPU tenets, and the latest example addresses light pollution.
Michelle Wooten, Ph.D., assistant professor of astronomy in the Department of Physics, launched Campus SHINE in 2024 in collaboration with UAB Facilities to assess the current state of on-campus lighting. With student assistants, she began by geolocating the lights on the campus green and taking data on each light. With over 3,800 lights of various types, Campus SHINE will greatly improve the ability of UAB Facilities to accurately inventory the lights around UAB's campus. This initiative illuminates more than hardware. It spotlights the interdependence of people, place, and planet, a fact we don’t often “see” although it's right before our eyes.
Read More