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By Elizabeth Weaver, BSN, RN
As nurses navigating a healthcare system strained by a pandemic, we must meet the challenges of the present and envision a better future for the nursing profession. To actualize that vision, it is essential to address the issue of racial and ethnic inequities. Vast and foundational inequalities are deeply woven into the fabric of our country and have persisted through centuries to bring us to where we are today - a society struggling to address the conflicts and divisions that have driven the disparate outcomes we witness daily among the people for whom we care. The global pandemic and the country’s response have highlighted health disparities and have brought the discussion of race and racism to the forefront. Nursing, established on the tenets of empathy and justice, cannot exempt itself from this discussion, and must now endeavor to reform and address inequities that exist within the profession.
I am struck by the words of Kenya Beard, EdD, RN, AGACNP-BC, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, Associate Provost, Social Mission, Chamberlain University, a powerful and guiding voice in the discussion on diversity in nursing. In response to the question “how much diversity [in nursing] is enough?”, she responded, “I would know there was enough diversity when racial and ethnic minorities felt safe to share their opinions about diversity in large settings - when diversity was such a normal occurrence that we would not have to ask how much diversity is enough” (Beard, 2014, p. 11).
It is well established that inequities exist in nursing. These inequities arise out of a long history of racism in the profession. It is eye-opening and disturbing to learn the facts.
At the outset of World War II, Black nurses were not allowed to join the U.S. Army. Black nurse leaders, notably Mabel Staupers, the Executive Director of the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN), campaigned for equity, resulting in an initial cohort of 56 Black nurses being accepted into the army in 1941 (Hine, 1989). That number grew to 160 by 1943. However, because of a shortage of nurses during the war, in 1943 the Bolton Act was passed, which provided grants to nursing education programs. The Bolton Act forbade discrimination, thus more Black women and men entered nursing programs. By the end of World War II, the military accepted all qualified nurses, regardless of race. In 1942, the National League of Nursing Education (now the National League for Nursing) changed its bylaws, allowing for Black nurses to become members. The records of the NACGN reveal that Black nurses were banned from joining the American Nurses Association until 1950 (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, NYPL, retrieved 17 August 2021)...
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