Cindy's 'Five RITES' for Fostering Student-Driven Civility

Some readers may know I am a professor in the School of Nursing at Boise State University. In June 2010, an article I co-authored with one of my nursing students, titled “What students can do to promote civility,” was published in Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL) as part of a five-part series on civility. As I mentioned in the first installment of this present series, nursing students are our promise and our hope. They are the Jedi Knights who will lead our noble profession to a bright future where personal and organizational civility reign. To frame this article, I have developed the Five RITES of Civility:

• Raise awareness and expose effects of incivility.
• Inspire action and catalyze change.
• Take responsibility for creating civility.
• Engage and commit to personal and organizational change.
• Sustain results and generate more change.