Black African nurses educated in the United States

Milestones in the journey: The story of refugees becoming registered nurses in Australia

AIMS

To explore the experiences of refugees who became registered nurses after arriving to Australia.

DESIGN

Qualitative description using a naturalistic inquiry framework.

METHODS

Between February 2018 and September 2019, the lead author conducted semi-structured interviews with employed registered nurses (RNs) that are former refugees and English-speaking. Interviews were 45-90 min' duration and digitally recorded. Participants provided voluntary informed consent and were sent questions beforehand. Data were collected and coded into themes. Rigor was achieved with multiple transcript readings by the research team to confirm common themes.

RESULTS

Twelve participants discussed their story. Three major themes were identified: (1) Milestone of being a refugee; (2) Milestone of resettling in Australia; (3) Milestone of becoming a RN.

CONCLUSION

Each participant's story started at a place of disadvantage. They progressed successfully through the three milestones; despite living with traumatic experiences, they learned new skills, developed English literacy, became a RN and juggled the demands of life. This paper highlights the poorly understood pockets of the current Australian RN workforce.

IMPACT STATEMENT

The nuanced stories of RNs with refugee backgrounds in this study move beyond trauma and struggle and demonstrate the important journey this particular group of health professionals undertake. Increasing the contextual knowledge of the complex lives of former refugees turned nursing professionals will raise public awareness of the diversity of life experiences of RNs working in Australia.

Achieving Success in Prelicensure Registered Nursing Programs: An Explanatory Case Study of African American Men

AIM

The aim of this research was to identify factors that facilitated successful completion of a prelicensure registered nursing program for African American men.

BACKGROUND

Successful completion of prelicensure nursing programs by African American men can increase diversity in the nursing profession. Further investigation is needed to understand the factors that can lead to success in completing prelicensure programs.

METHOD

An explanatory, multiple-case study design was used to explore the personal characteristics, perspectives, and life events of African American men who completed prelicensure nursing programs.

RESULTS

The five factors that influenced success were establishing goals, securing financial resources, maintaining family as a support system, meeting academic expectations, and developing a sense of belonging.

CONCLUSION

Recommendations for how nurse educators can implement strategies to promote success for this population of students are discussed.

Outsiders in Nursing - Voices of Black African Born Nurses & Students in the US: An Integrative Review

Purpose:

The purpose of this integrative review was to describe the experience of being outsiders in nursing as described by Black African Born Nurses and Student Nurses (BABN&SN) in the U.S., give voice to their experiences in U.S. academia and healthcare settings, discuss the implications of the BABN&SN othering on the U.S. healthcare systems, and offer recommendations to address the issues based on the literature.

Methods:

An integrative review approach discussed by Whittemore and Knafl was utilized to review literature from nursing journal published from 2008 to 2019.

Results:

Major findings include collegial/peer isolation and loneliness; racism and discrimination, unwelcoming environment, silencing of voices, personal resilience, and sense of belonging. The results of this review indicate that BABN&SN experience in U.S. nursing contribute to harrowing periods of feeling like ‘an outsider.’

Conclusions:

BABN&SN are integral part of the U.S. nursing workforce and the healthcare system. Academic and work environments that support all nurses and students, despite their perceived differences, are essential to promoting an inclusive environment. Understanding the relational pattern that guides the BABN&SN socialization into nursing is vital to developing targeted support especially when entering the clinical practice environment.

The White/Black hierarchy institutionalizes White supremacy in nursing and nursing leadership in the United States

BACKGROUND

Black/African American nurses (BAANs) in the United States (US) experience barriers to career advancement.

AIM

The specific aims of this study were to a) explore how the perception of racism or racial bias affects the motivation of Black/African American nurses (BAANs) in the United States (US) to seek and apply for nursing leadership and faculty positions, and b) to characterize the racism-related barriers that BAANs perceive that prevent them from moving forward with their careers in academia and nursing leadership.

METHOD

As part of a qualitative focused ethnographic study, 30 nurses who self-identified as BAAN, had a bachelor's degree or higher, and had at least five years of nursing experience were interviewed. Qualitative data underwent thematic analysis.

RESULT

Although five themes were identified, four were established in the literature, and one - Nursing Leadership Dynamics (NLD) - was novel. A complex network of NLDs that served to both prevent the success of BAANs as well as threaten their job security and health was identified.

CONCLUSION

This study identified a multi-faceted, tightly-woven system of NLDs that serves to continually institutionalize and enforce a white/black hierarchy and white supremacy in nursing at all levels in the US, including education.