Nurses You Should Know: The power of online microlearning to decolonize nursing's history.

Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, Native American, Asian, and Pacific Islander nurses have played a critical role in shaping professional nursing and health care. Despite their contributions, the narrative of nursing's origin has predominantly revolved around the legacy of a single white British nurse, Florence Nightingale. This paper presents the development of the Nurses You Should Know (NYSK) project, which sought to decolonize the narrative surrounding nursing's history and highlight the contributions and experiences of past and present-day nurses of color. The NYSK project utilized an Equity-Centered Community Design process, incorporating microlearning strategies, storytelling, and history to develop a digital library of over 100 stories of nurses of color that capture nursing's rich and complex history. Utilized as a resource within nursing curricula, the NYSK project stands as a testament to the power of history in promoting a more inclusive and equitable future for nursing, offering valuable insights for educators, researchers, and practitioners.

Perspectives and corrective processes: Evaluating social justice in a nursing PhD program.

Efforts to integrate tenets of social justice into PhD nursing programs are long-standing but have intensified in the past few years in response to civil unrest, threats to human rights, and health inequities exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we present an overview of our School of Nursing's efforts and processes to evaluate and ensure that social justice principles were reflected throughout the PhD program. Components of this initiative included (a) forming a Social Justice Taskforce, (b) conducting listening sessions with alumni and currently enrolled PhD students to understand student experiences, (c) surveying PhD students to aid in prioritization of recommendations for improvement, and (d) convening key stakeholders to connect student priority areas to institutional programs and practices. Lessons learned through these activities highlighted the importance of gaining the perspective of diverse constituents and stakeholders, acknowledging areas for improvement, engaging students in transformative action, and partnering with faculty, staff, and leaders in solution development as we work to eliminate systemic injustices in PhD nursing education.

"I had become fed up": A qualitative study of Black nurse practitioners' experiences fighting against health inequity, racism, and burnout.

BACKGROUND: Increasing diversity in the nurse practitioner (NP) workforce is key to improving outcomes among patients who experience health inequities. However, few studies to date have examined the specific mechanisms by which NPs from diverse backgrounds address inequities in care delivery. PURPOSE: To explore Black NPs' efforts in addressing inequities, and the facilitators and barriers they face in doing so. METHODOLOGY: We conducted focus groups and interviews of Black NPs ( N = 16) in the greater Philadelphia area in early 2022, just following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social unrest of the early 2020s. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Emergent themes included: Strategies Utilized to Address Health Inequities ; Burnout & the Minority Tax ; Risks & Rewards of Taking a Stance ; and Uneven Promises of Organizational Engagement . Nurse practitioners prioritized patient-centered, culturally congruent care, taking additional time to explore community resources and learn about patients' lives to facilitate care planning. Participants advocated to administrators for resources to address inequities while simultaneously navigating organizational dynamics, microaggressions, and racism. Finally, NPs identified organizational-level barriers, leading to emotional exhaustion and several participants' intent to leave their roles. CONCLUSIONS: Black NPs use a myriad of strategies to improve equity, yet frequently face substantial barriers and emotional exhaustion in doing so with little change to the inequities in care. IMPLICATIONS: The NP workforce has a critical role to play in reducing health inequities. The strategies outlined by Black NPs in this study offer a roadmap for all clinicians and health care organizations to prioritize equity in care delivery.

Barriers to Care for Persons With Sickle Cell Disease: The Case Manager's Opportunity to Improve Patient Outcomes.

PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this discussion is to review the barriers to care for patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). Chronic pain and the perception of addiction, implicit bias, frequent hospitalizations and emergency department visits, clinician and patient knowledge deficits, and SCD stigma all impede the ability to provide evidence-based care for patients with SCD. Case managers can coordinate and advocate for appropriate care that improves patient outcomes. PRIMARY PRACTICE SETTING: This discussion is relevant to case managers working with patients with SCD in the clinic, hospital, and emergency department. FINDINGS/CONCLUSIONS: Case managers can serve an important advocacy role and intervene to improve the coordination of services and efficient use of resources. This will lead to improved quality of life and optimal health care utilization for persons with SCD. IMPLICATIONS FOR CASE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE: As a constant member of the health care team, the case manager may be the only health care team member who has a broad knowledge of the patient's experience of acute and chronic pain, usual state of health, social behavioral health needs, and how these factors may affect both inpatient and outpatient health care use and health outcomes. This article explores the barriers to care and suggests specific interventions within the role of the case manager that can improve care delivered and ultimately contribute to improved patient outcomes. Specifically, these interventions can improve communication among members of the health care team. Case manager interventions can guide coordination, prevent hospital readmissions, reduce health care utilization, and contribute to overall improved patient quality of life and health outcomes.