Having Hard Conversations About Racism Within Nursing Education: A Collaborative Process of Developing an Antiracism Action Plan

'Ain't I a Nurse', implementing a digital illustration of resistance when challenging anti-Black racism in nursing education

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing reports have highlighted the urgency of addressing anti-Black racism within Canada's healthcare system. The paucity of research within a Canadian context has created growing concerns among Millennials and Generation Zs for healthcare to address growing health disparities and health inequities that are attributed to institutional and structural racism. Recognizing the paradigm shift that has occurred because of the pandemic and the sleuth of racial killings, the nursing classroom has witnessed a change and a need for nursing education to be relevant for the cohort of nursing students who are seeking answers. The scarcity of nursing literature addressing diverse forms of learning demonstrates the need for nursing education to explore new ways of being diverse, inclusive and innovative when teaching intergenerationally. In this paper, the author challenges nurse educators to revisit the student-educator relationship by introducing critical digital pedagogy to dismantle anti-Black racism and promote student-educator engagement for transformative learning to occur. As an educator, the author implements the use of digital illustration as a tool of resistance for students and educators to assess, engage, act and reflect on creating change within nursing education. Using Black feminist thought and culturally responsive learning, the author introduces an arts-based approach through the innovative design of an illustration, titled, 'Ain't I a Nurse. Combining historical stories with contemporary socio-political experiences, the author demonstrates how students and educators can enter a cognitive learning experience where they can connect mentally and emotionally, and in so doing re-envision and recreate a new world that centralizes equity, diversity and inclusivity through critical discourses. Through the illustration anti-Black racism is challenged and anti-Black racism resistance is discovered as an antidote in dismantling anti-Black racism within nursing education.

Decolonisation for health: A lifelong process of unlearning for Australian white nurse educators

Indigenous nurse scholars across nations colonised by Europeans articulate the need for accomplices (as opposed to mere performative allies) to work alongside them and support their ongoing struggle for health equity and respect and to prioritise and promote culturally safe healthcare. Although cultural safety is now being mandated in nursing codes of practice as a strategy to address racism in healthcare, it is important that white nurse educators have a comprehensive understanding about cultural safety and the pedagogical skills needed to teach it to undergraduate nurses. We open this article with stories of our journeys as two white nurses in becoming accomplices and working alongside Indigenous Peoples, as patients and colleagues. Our lived experience of the inertia of healthcare and education organisations to address systemic and institutional resistance to the practice of cultural safety underpins the intention of this article. We understand that delivering this challenging and complex topic effectively and respectfully is best achieved when Indigenous and white educators work together at the cultural interface. Doing so requires commitment from white nurses and power holders within universities and healthcare institutions. A decolonising approach to nurse education at individual and institutional levels is fundamental to support and grow the work that needs to be done to reduce health inequity and increase cultural safety. White nurse accomplices can play an important role in teaching future nurses the importance of critical reflection and aiming to reduce power imbalances and racism within healthcare environments. Reducing power imbalances in healthcare environments and decolonising nursing practice is the strength of a cultural safety framework.

"You have to strive very hard to prove yourself": experiences of Black nursing students in a Western Canadian province

OBJECTIVES

This study explored the experiences of Black students in two western Canadian undergraduate nursing programs.

METHODS

Using a qualitative focused ethnography design grounded in critical race theory and intersectionality, participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through individual interviews, and a follow-up focus group. Data were analyzed using collaborative-thematic analysis team approaches.

RESULTS

n=18 current and former students participated. Five themes emerged: systemic racism in nursing, precarious immigrant context, mental health/well-being concerns, coping mechanisms, and suggestions for improvement.

CONCLUSIONS

An improved understanding of Black student experiences can inform their recruitment and retention. Supporting Black students' success can potentially improve equity, diversity, and inclusivity in nursing education programs and/or their representation in the Canadian nursing workforce.

IMPLICATIONS FOR AN INTERNATIONAL AUDIENCE

The presence of a diverse nursing profession is imperative to meet the needs to provide more quality and culturally competent services to diverse population.