February is Black History Month - Bringing Awareness and Recognizion of Black Nurses in Canada

TMED Student Society

| 28 March 2023

Written by Abhishek Shastry, MSc'24 (Candidate), EDII and SGPS Representative, TMED Student Society

February is Black History Month, a month commemorated for the acknowledgement and celebration of the resilience and strength of Black communities in Canada. Black Canadians make up a substantial part of the Canadian cultural fabric. Some Black Canadians can trace their ancestry back multiple generations, arising as the descendants of ‘freed’ people in the 1600s through to the 1800s in communities like Africville in Nova Scotia, a small village and safe-haven from the anti-Black racism and discrimination that Black peoples faced as they settled in Canada. Other Black Canadians are more recent immigrants to Canada, having immigrated from the Caribbean and the African continent. Black Canadians make up 3.5% of the population of Canada. Despite the ongoing systemic and interpersonal racism that plagues the country, Black Canadians have contributed to large parts of Canadian history and society that have often gone unnoticed, or have been intentionally ignored. An example of this is the exclusion of Black individuals from academic and research spaces due to systemic discrimination. In addition, the study of Black histories in Canada, and the influence of Black peoples in our society has not been addressed as thoroughly as those in dominant demographic groups, owing to the purposeful ignorance of heads of institutions in acknowledging the contributions and successes of Black academics. In healthcare, Black workers face intentional and systemic racism from their patients, peers, and management. A prominent example of this discrimination can be found in nursing.

Nursing is a White-dominated field. Instances of racism and discrimination in the nursing environment have been ignored by healthcare leaders and stem from a lack of understanding of the impacts of continuous racism on the wellbeing of nurses, who must maintain a level of professionalism in the face of disrespect from their patients, peers, and superiors. To survey the perceptions of systematic and interpersonal discrimination experienced by Black nurses in Ontario, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) established a Black Nurses Task Force (BNTF). This task force, comprised of nursing professionals, educators, researchers, and students, directed its efforts in outlining the needs and experiences of Black nurses across the province.

In a report published in February 2022, the BNTF outlined four pillars outlining its objectives, including Education and Awareness Building, Research, Advocacy at All Levels, and Partnership with Allies and Stakeholders. Focused research regarding the experiences of Black nurses is relatively innovative given the lack of such studies in academia. In an Ontario-wide survey aiming to learn about anti-Black discrimination within the nursing profession, the BNTF observed that 88.3% of its participants reported having experienced racism and/or discrimination as a Black nurse. Because of this, almost 63% of participants reported having had strong and moderate negative impacts to their mental health. In a qualitative analysis of participant responses who reported not having significant experiences of racism, common themes that emerged included a lack of support from supervisors and peers, a fear of reprisal or backlash from their superiors, oppressive behaviours of supervisors and teachers, and ineffective coping mechanisms to actual or perceived racism. Often, Black workers are afraid of their real concerns being ignored by their peers or superiors, many of whom are White and do not experience racism. Because of this, many Black and other people of colour often minimize their own negative experiences to avoid pushback and as to not disrupt the dynamic of their workplace as it is. A key piece of qualitative data that arose from the report was the experiences of racism nurses faced from their patients. Numerous nurses reported being asked by patients to be cared for by a White nurse, the lack of belief or seriousness given to this form of racism by healthcare management, and the lack of zero-tolerance policies for racism and other forms of discrimination towards hospital staff.

This seminal report also surveyed nurses and asked them for methods they believed would help retain and recruit Black nurses given current institutional barriers. The most common of which included ensuring human resources and hiring teams are racially diverse, hiring more black nurses in executive leadership and managerial positions, having a zero tolerance policy for racism and discrimination, and including Black nurses in workplace decision-making. The survey further asked participants whether they received education regarding cultural competence, cultural humility, Black history, anti-racism, anti-oppression, trauma-informed care, and/or race as a social determinant of health as a part of their nursing curriculum, and nearly two-thirds of participants said they did not, leading to the assumption that nursing education across Ontario, and likely across the nation, lacks the cultural-competency and inclusivity components that ensure that non-Black nurses and other allies can see anti-Black racism when it manifests within themselves and in others, and have the tools to combat these aggressions.

Further, the BNTF report introduced concrete micro, meso, and macro recommendations and actionable steps for organizations and institutions to take, largely based off the surveyed responses, to ensure the adequate training and working environment of all nursing students and staff. An important aspect of these recommendations are the direct call-to-action of various stakeholders including post-secondary institutions, regulatory bodies, and more. This directs their recommended actions to bodies who have the capacity to fulfill these obligations. The BNTF extends its efforts additionally into allyship with other organizations who are involved in nursing regulation, education, and/or funding, including RNAO, the Ontario Government, Black advocacy organizations such as the Black Business and Professional Association (BBPA) and Black Founders of Community Networks (BFCN), and acts as an advisory group to the Black Nurses Leading Change (BNLC) Interest Group.

I would highly recommend a read through the report which provides extensive and detailed recommendations for further action that should be taken to ensure that Black nurses and nursing students are protected. The work of the BNTF is a strong first step to identifying, understanding, and eliminating the systemic obstacles for Black nurses to safely work, and their achievements outlined in the report are invaluable in making progress in this sphere.

February is Black History Month - Bringing Awareness and Recognizion of Black Nurses in Canada

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February is Black History Month - Bringing Awareness and Recognizion of Black Nurses in Canada