<p><strong>Background</strong></p> <p>With migration occurring over a series of centuries, dating back to the 1600’s, the circumstance regarding Black people in Canada is a complex account. A plethora of social issues and the failure to adequately acknowledge and reconcile historical issues, has resulted in health inequity, disparities and knowledge gaps, related to the Black population in Canada. In nursing, historical records indicate a legacy of discrimination that continues to impact Black nurses. The profession has begun reckoning with anti-Black racism and the residual effects. This scoping review sought to chart the existing evidence on Black nurses in the nursing profession in Canada. </p> <p><strong>Methods </strong></p> <p>JBI methodology was used to search peer-reviewed evidence and unpublished gray literature. Sources were considered for inclusion based on criteria outlined in an a priori protocol focusing on: 1) Canada 2) Black nurses and 3) nursing practice. No restrictions were placed on date of publication and language was limited to English and French. All screening and extractions were completed by two independent reviewers. </p> <p><strong>Results </strong></p> <p>The database search yielded 688 records. After removing duplicates, 600 titles and abstracts were screened for eligibility and 127 advanced to full-text screening. Eighty-two full-text articles were excluded, for a total of 44 sources meeting the inclusion criteria. Seven sources were identified through gray literature search. Subsequently, 31 sources underwent data extraction. Of the 31 sources, 18 are research (n = 18), six are commentaries (n = 6); one report (n = 1) and six are classified as announcements, memoranda or policy statements (n = 6). The review findings are categorized into five conceptual categories: racism (n = 12); historical situatedness (n = 2); leadership and career progression (n = 7); immigration (n = 4); and diversity in the workforce (n = 4). </p> <p><strong>Conclusions </strong></p> <p>This review reveals the interconnectedness of the five conceptual categories. Racism was a prominent issue woven throughout the majority of the sources. Additionally, this review captures how racism is exacerbated by intersectional factors such as gender, class and nationality. The findings herein offer insight regarding anti-Black racism and discrimination in nursing as well as suggestions for future research including the use of diverse methodologies in different jurisdictions across the country. Lastly, the implications extend to the nursing workforce in relation to enhancing diversity and addressing the ongoing nursing shortage. </p>
Racism against Black people, Indigenous and other racialized people continues to exist in healthcare and academic settings. Racism produces profound harm to racialized people. Strategies to address systemic racism must be implemented to bring about sustainable changes in healthcare and academic settings. This quality improvement initiative provides strategies to address systemic racism and discrimination against Black nurses and nursing students in Ontario, Canada. It is part of a broader initiative showcasing Black nurses in action to end racism and discrimination. We have found that people who have experienced racism need healing, support and protection including trauma-related services to facilitate their healing. Implementing multi-level, multi-pronged interventions in workplaces will create healthy work environments for all members of society, especially Black nurses who are both clients/patients and providers of healthcare.
OBJECTIVE This discussion paper describes the intricacies of the strong Black woman (SBW) construct and how understanding this construct is significant and relevant within nursing. METHOD This article is a discussion piece that provides a succinct conceptual and historical overview of the SBW construct. It then describes the impacts of this construct before presenting implications as they relate to nursing practice, education, policy, and research. RESULTS The SBW construct is exclusively and routinely applied to Black women. Typically, the SBW construct encompasses five components, which center on independence, caring, and strength. These five components include the obligation to (1) always maintain and present an image of strength, (2) suppress emotion, (3) be self-reliant, (4) succeed despite all odds, and (5) always place the needs [especially comfort] of others above those of oneself. Moreover, the SBW construct posits Black women as possessing superhuman capabilities. The nature of this construct is complex, with some Black women using it as a survival mechanism, and others finding empowerment through this image. Nevertheless, recent research has revealed the harms associated with this image including detriment to physical, mental, and spiritual well-being, with the implications extending to Black families and communities. CONCLUSION Understanding this topic is essential in providing support to all Black women in health care and within the Black community—including patients, nurses, faculty, staff, and students. Recognizing the implications of the SBW construct is essential toward ensuring that our care, practices, and policies are not only supportive but also antiracist.
This article highlights a growing gap in the Canadian nursing workforce, specifically in nursing leadership. Black nurses are significantly underrepresented in nursing and even more so as nurse leaders. This commentary will provide a brief background related to Black nurses in healthcare, a description of nursing leadership, the significance of having Black nurses in leadership positions and finally how to move towards increasing the representation and visibility of Black nurse leaders. This commentary is timely and necessary, as it will describe how Black nurse leaders can enrich the nursing profession as well as the lives of Black individuals, families and communities.
It is common in many jurisdictions, including Canada, to allow children to co-reside with their mothers in prison through mother-child programs, and thus mitigate the harm of separation from the primary parent. This scoping review illustrates the complexity of maternal and child health outcomes associated with such programs.
Aims and objectives To explore the nurse‐midwives’ and obstetricians’ experiences delivering postpartum care assessments and how it was constructed through personal, social and institutional discourses. Introduction The Tanzanian Government has prioritised maternal and child health as an urgent healthcare issue. Nurse‐midwives and obstetricians are the two main providers of care throughout the prenatal and postpartum periods. Design A qualitative design guided by a feminist poststructuralist methodology. Methods Ten nurse‐midwives and three obstetricians from three Regional Hospitals in Dar es Salaam participated in individual semi‐structured in‐depth interviews. Results Assessment emerged as a significant theme with three subthemes. Nurse‐midwives shared their beliefs and values about assessments that focused on the safety of mothers and babies. They felt proud working with mothers and babies and shared their frustrations having to deal with inadequate working conditions. Guidelines and practices were part of the institutional discourse that impacted the day‐to‐day experiences of nurse‐midwives and obstetricians. The nurse‐midwives held the belief that it was vital to complete a comprehensive assessment to identify danger signs, keep mothers and babies safe and look for any abnormalities. They were concerned that mothers were being sent home too early. Conclusions Nurse‐midwives’ experiences in the provision of postpartum care portray that these health providers work heartedly to make sure that the mothers and their newborns receive the best care they can provide. The health system is challenged to address the needed supplies and equipment for reproductive health in particular postpartum care services. Relevance to clinical practice Institutional health discourses significantly affect the practice of nurse‐midwives and obstetricians to deliver timely and effective postpartum assessments. Immediate and ongoing postpartum assessments conducted by nurse‐midwives and obstetricians can save lives. This study presents the first theme of the study: Caring assessments save lives.
The objective of this review was to chart the literature on assistive technologies (excluding robots) that support social interaction of older adults in long-term care homes, and to advance a definition of socially assistive technologies.Loneliness and social isolation have adverse effects on the health and well-being of older adults. Many long-term care homes provide recreational programming intended to entertain or distract residents, yet the evidence of their effectiveness is limited. Absent from the literature are comprehensive reviews of assistive technologies (other than robots) that are used to support social interaction in long-term care homes.The review considered research studies as well as gray literature that included older adults (≥65 years) living in long-term care homes. The concept of interest was the use of assistive technologies (excluding robots) that support social interaction in long-term care homes.The databases were searched on June 26, 2019, and included CINAHL Full Text (EBSCO), MEDLINE (Ovid), PsycINFO (EBSCO), Sociological Abstracts (ProQuest), Embase (Elsevier), and Web of Science (Clarivate). The search for gray literature was conducted in ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Databases and across 11 websites during September and October 2019. The recommended JBI approach to study selection, data extraction, and data synthesis was used.Twenty-five articles were included in this review, with comparable numbers of quantitative (n = 6), qualitative (n = 9), and mixed methods (n = 7) studies, with the remaining articles employing non-empirical designs (n = 3). Technologies were categorized as low (easily recognizable to everyone), medium (more electronics), or high (involves internet). Two studies reported on low-assistive technologies, including videotapes and the telephone. Medium-assistive technologies were identified in nine studies and included videophones; Nintendo Wii; tablet-based games; picture- and video-viewing tools; and CRDL (pronounced "cradle"), a special instrument that translates touch into sound. More than half (n = 14) of the included articles utilized high-assistive technologies, such as computer labs/kiosks, tablet-based applications, social media (eg, Facebook), videoconferencing, and multi-functional systems. Five studies measured whether assistive technologies had an impact on the quantity of long-term care residents' social interaction levels. Qualitative themes were related to residents' social connections and experiences after using various technologies. Four studies systematically incorporated a framework/model, and Social Structuration Theory was considered the most comprehensive. In the absence of a definition of socially assistive technologies, the definition advanced from this review is as follows: Socially assistive technologies are user-appropriate devices and tools that enable real-time connectivity to enhance social interaction.Included literature reported the benefits of technology use, with considerable variability in engagement and no cost estimates. We recommend that future research continue to advance our definition of socially assistive technologies, make promising assistive technologies available in long-term care homes after studies are completed, report the costs of assistive technologies, and include participants with dementia and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
As an African Nova Scotian (ANS) woman, registered nurse, full-time doctoral candidate and activist, I have decided to share key moments from my experience navigating academia. I discuss how being an ANS woman is significant to this journey as well as the ways in which anti-Black racism reinforces the underrepresentation of Black folks in nursing. The purpose of this scholarly personal narrative (SPN) is to generate meaning from my journey to becoming a nurse leader. The guiding question for this work is: What is the experience of an ANS woman in becoming a nurse leader? Guided by Narrative Inquiry and Black feminist theory, my SPN uses the Ten Tentative Guidelines for Writing SPNs offered by Nash (2004). This unconventional approach to research situates stories as the fundamental unit of measurement which emphasizes the significance and meaning of our lives. The iterative approach to this reflective exercise produced two key overarching themes, namely: Developing Personal and Professional Identity, and Potential vs. Power. Each theme contains additional subthemes that capture salient elements of my journey to nursing leadership. This SPN has implications for both education and the nursing profession. For education, this work offers insight to address institutional barriers that perpetuate anti-Black racism. Improving program access for Black students, providing adequate resources to facilitate success and ensuring the representation of Black students, staff and faculty throughout institutions are vital. Likewise, similar insights apply to nursing in the areas of practice, education, research and policy. Specifically, addressing issues of representation and visibility, to foster inclusivity, within the profession is essential.
