Weekends in my childhood home were punctuated by household chores, a practice that has continued into my adulthood. I have tried to take advantage of modern conveniences such as online food delivery services, but those weekend shopping trips with my mother trained me to select the sweetest, juiciest, and freshest fruits and vegetables, something that doesn't happen when a high school student is picking and packing your produce. While completing my weekend chores I also take advantage of another favorite pastime-popping in my wireless headphones and listening to a book.
I recently finished Heather McGhee's The Sum of Us. McGhee is a lawyer by education whose research interests extend to solving problems in both economics and public policy. This book was born out of her attempt to understand economic inequality in the United States. In it, she examines important facets of our public life, such as universal health care, pandemic response, social security, and mortgage assistance, and finds racism to be the root cause of these difficult-to-solve public problems. The central thesis of the book is that public policy decisions were and continue to be shaped by strategies that benefit some, but not all. Public policy decisions are often fueled by "zero-sum" thinking; that is, if the result is an advantage to some, it will be a loss to others. McGhee provides quantitative evidence from public policies combined with phenomenological support to demonstrate that racism-figuratively and literally-costs everyone. It is a fantastic, thought-provoking read and essential to understanding the monumental work still to be done to dismantle the disdain and distrust created by public policy actions. The book also provides a blueprint for the discussions and work needed to create change.
Similar discussions are occurring to address racism in nursing. In 2022, the American Nurses Association took the weighty step of beginning the conversation to address its role in perpetuating racism in nursing and established the National Commission to Address Racism in Nursing. A 2022 survey by the commission found that over 63% of nurses experience some form of racism in the workplace, with peers making up 66% of the transgressors and managers making up 60%. This type of data is hard to ignore; yes, there are many truths, but when more than half of the sampled workforce reports an issue, everyone needs to take notice.
In this month's original research article, Saadi and colleagues explore nurses' experience with workplace discrimination based on race, ethnicity, culture, or religion. Conducted in one academic medical center, the study identifies several themes associated with discriminatory events experienced by nurses. While the findings may not be generalizable to other settings, they do beg the question of whether this is a problem in my own proverbial backyard. What I learned from McGhee is that in order to create change, we have to start "telling the truth," discussing our lived experience. I applaud this team of researchers for openly having a conversation about the lived experiences of this group of nurses. At first glance one might say, do we really need another paper about racism and discrimination of nurses? What is different about this contribution is its intraprofessional approach to the issue. Both physician and nurse researchers are engaged in this research, emphasizing how the study findings might affect team performance, workforce contributions, and member satisfaction.
In her guest editorial in the November 2022 Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, Carole R. Myers makes the following recommendations for nurses to create a necessary change. First, she recommends becoming familiar with Canty and colleagues' February 2022 AJN article on racial reckoning. I agree-it is powerful, informative, practical, and most important, nurses of all colors contributed to its creation. Second, Myers says that "engaging in conversations with peers and networking with groups committed to social change are needed." Saadi and colleagues demonstrate how people are working toward change by discussing and documenting the racism experience. Finally, Myers calls for change at the ballot box, saying that "nurses . . . must get political, vote, and speak out." Be sure to read AJN Reports this month, which gives a historical perspective on nurses in public office and highlights the potential impact nurses could have if more ran for office. The work of these authors contributes to the important conversation about racism and shines a light on how nurses can personally and professionally contribute to dismantling racism in meaningful ways.