The inaugural class of the new nursing school at the University of St. Thomas will graduate this weekend, with a focus on boosting diversity in health care.

About a third of the 37 students who completed their master’s degrees at the Susan S. Morrison School of Nursing come from historically “underrepresented” groups in the nursing field, including men, people of color and first-generation college students.

The graduates participated in a special pinning ceremony Thursday afternoon, did the traditional “March Out of the Arches” on campus on Friday and will walk across the stage in their commencement ceremony Sunday morning.

The students started the program in the fall 2022.

At the time, 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS toured the school’s new multi-million-dollar simulation lab, which featured several rooms set up with high-tech robots serving as patients in various scenarios.

Administrators had said they were intentional not only about creating a state-of-the-art school but also about recruiting a diverse class in the hopes of training nurses who could better reflect the demographics of their patients.

“I’m so inspired by this class. I really am,” Executive Director Dr. Annette Hines said Friday. “I know they’re going to go into areas where they’re really needed. They’re going to go with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that they need to promote health equity and to work for social justice here in our state.”

In addition to 20 months of schooling and 570 clinical hours, Hines said the school prepared the graduates to be “culturally competent” so they can care for the “whole person” when encountering a patient in a medical setting.

“It’s so important to listen to them, to understand them, so they can have foods that are important, be able to wear dress that’s important in their culture and so many things, if nurses just know,” Hines said.

Nursing school graduate Sarah Abuisnaineh, whose parents immigrated here from Palestine, noted the importance of tradition in the Muslim culture.

“How they prefer to be taken care of before death and even after they pass away, those are very important parts of our culture,” Abuisnaineh said. “Nurses that are more culturally competent can have that impact.”

Roy Palmer is one of six men in the class.

He hopes to use his background as a sports performance coach to make an impact in the field of public health.

He said he is proud to see other male classmates bringing their own unique life experiences into the profession.

“Having more men in nursing is a really important thing that will make a big difference,” Palmer said. “But beyond the six of us being male, I think we’re all just good people who have good hearts and want to help people. I think that people from my class will make a big difference in this community and well beyond that. I definitely feel grateful and I’m excited for what’s next.”

Administrators told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that next year’s class is even bigger, looking to graduate about 50 students.