Mentoring Experience for Career Advancement: The perspectives of Black Women Academic Nurse Leaders.

Mentoring is critical for career advancement in all professions. It is especially crucial for leadership development and succession planning. Studies suggest that increasing the racial minority representation in higher-level leadership will provide diverse skill sets, promote innovation, and yield positive outcomes. The study aimed to examine how Black women academic nurse leaders perceive mentoring in academic nursing using critical race theory as the guiding framework and explore the crucial role of mentorship in promoting and advancing Black women academic nurse leaders. The study used a narrative qualitative research design, purposive sampling, and unstructured interviews to collect and thematically analyze data. Findings fall under two major themes; being mentored and mentoring others. The findings highlight perceived significant differences in the allocation of resources and mentoring for career advancement in academic nursing for Black nurses compared to those classified as white. Increasing diversity in nursing requires deliberate effort from majority white leadership.

Critical Race Theory: A Framework for the Re-Education of American Nurses.

The nursing profession has been predominantly white and female since the time of Florence Nightingale. The United States 2020 census revealed a changing demographic landscape in which white people are no longer the majority race; this shift will continue well into the future based on who is having babies. Calls to diversify the nursing workforce and address disparities and inequities in health care continue. Nursing faculty who shape curricula are challenged to create a more inclusive framework to teach students about care. Without focused attention on how to prepare future nurses to care for all people, patient safety and quality of care are at stake. This article suggests using critical race theory as a framework to re-educate American nurses.

Prelicensure Nursing Students' Reflections on Institutional Response to the 2020 COVID-19 Crisis.

The study aimed to describe how prelicensure student nurses perceive academic support and their institutions' response during the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. The shift to online learning caused by the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted every aspect of higher education, including pre-licensure nursing students. Prelicensure nursing education is one of the most stressful programs in higher education. In a period of great uncertainty, it becomes essential to explore how prelicensure nursing students perceive academic support from their institutions. A qualitative descriptive design was employed for the study. Thematic analysis was used to analyze data obtained from 16 semi-structured interviews. Six themes resulted from the data: Disorganization leading to chaos; technology and technical challenges; stress and frustration; am I prepared to be a nurse?; not having money; mental health matters. This study validates the experiences of nursing students. Students' obstacles during the pandemic should be identified and mitigated to promote learning and academic success.

The voice of Black academic nurse leaders in the United States: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Black and African American people make up a little over 13% of the United States population. Black nurses represent 7.8% of US nurses and 8.7% of nursing faculty. The exact percentage of Black nurses in academic leadership cannot be ascertained. Studies indicate the need to diversify nursing at every level including academic nursing leadership. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to examine the everyday lived experiences of Black academic nurse leaders in the United States through the Critical Race Theory perspectives. METHODS: A qualitative narrative research study design was employed for the study. Data were collected from 34 Black academic nurse leaders using unstructured interview. RESULTS: The findings of the study were classified under six major themes; the path to academic leadership, we need trust and support, the pressure for positive representation, uppity Black nurse, and treading a thin line. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides an insight into the insights into the intersection of race and gendered experiences of Black academic nurse leaders. Nursing education is in a unique position to maximize the human capital potential of Black nurses in the workplace, especially those graduating from graduate programs around the country.

Students' perspectives of factors related to delayed completion of online RN-BSN programs.

BACKGROUND: There are multiple educational programs for individuals to become registered nurses (RNs), and the transition from an associate degree or diploma to a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree is vital to healthcare. This study examined the factors contributing to delayed completion or withdrawal from online RN-BSN nursing programs from students' perspectives. METHOD: Thematic content analyses were conducted on qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews (N = 26). RESULTS: Complex factors contributed to delayed completion of online RN-BSN programs, including student-, institutional-, and faculty-related factors. CONCLUSION: This study validated and extends previous studies without delineating students in fully online programs from hybrid and face-to-face programs. Students, faculty, and institutions all have a role to play in facilitating on-time program completion. Recognizing and mitigating the barriers that delay on-time program completion is required to foster nurses to obtain a BSN degree.

The White/Black hierarchy institutionalizes White supremacy in nursing and nursing leadership in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Black/African American nurses (BAANs) in the United States (US) experience barriers to career advancement. AIM: The specific aims of this study were to a) explore how the perception of racism or racial bias affects the motivation of Black/African American nurses (BAANs) in the United States (US) to seek and apply for nursing leadership and faculty positions, and b) to characterize the racism-related barriers that BAANs perceive that prevent them from moving forward with their careers in academia and nursing leadership. METHOD: As part of a qualitative focused ethnographic study, 30 nurses who self-identified as BAAN, had a bachelor's degree or higher, and had at least five years of nursing experience were interviewed. Qualitative data underwent thematic analysis. RESULT: Although five themes were identified, four were established in the literature, and one - Nursing Leadership Dynamics (NLD) - was novel. A complex network of NLDs that served to both prevent the success of BAANs as well as threaten their job security and health was identified. CONCLUSION: This study identified a multi-faceted, tightly-woven system of NLDs that serves to continually institutionalize and enforce a white/black hierarchy and white supremacy in nursing at all levels in the US, including education.

Rejecting the myth of equal opportunity: an agenda to eliminate racism in nursing education in the United States.

BACKGROUND: Unfortunately, racism and discrimination against Ethnic minority (EM) has been globalized, universally infecting industries worldwide, and the field of nursing has not been spared. In the United States (US), overt and institutionalized racism (IR) still permeates the fields of nursing, nursing leadership, and nursing education. Programs to address these disparities, and efforts by nursing professional societies and nursing education policymaking bodies to address racism in the nursing field, specifically with nursing leadership and education, have met with little success. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the existence and magnitude of racism and its impact on the fields of nursing, nursing leadership, and nursing education, and to make evidence-based recommendations for an agenda for reforming nursing education in the US. METHODS: A narrative literature review was conducted with a focus on pulling together the strongest evidence on which to base policy recommendations. RESULTS: Based on the available literature, we put forth five recommendations aimed at modifying nursing education in the US as a strategy to counter IR in the US in the nursing field. CONCLUSIONS: Recommendations to address IR in nursing focus on nursing education, and involve implementing programs to address the lack of opportunity for both EM students and faculty in nursing, developing an anti-discriminatory pedagogy, and incorporating diversity initiatives as key performance indicators (KPIs) in the process of approval and accreditation of nursing programs.

African born black nurses' perception of their U.S. work environment: Race matters.

BACKGROUND: Healthy work environment is essential to patients' safety, staff recruitment, retention, and organization's financial viability. It is imperative to examine, understand and mitigate any and all factors that may contribute to unhealthy work environment. PURPOSE: This study aimed to describe how African-born Black nurses felt their race affected their experience of the work environment and whether these experiences contributed to perceptions of unhealthy work environments. METHOD: Thematic analysis was performed on data obtained from unstructured interviews of 17 African born Black nurses in this qualitative descriptive study. FINDINGS: Seven themes emerged from the study: disregard for personhood, poor communication, democratic disqualification, lack of recognition, missing authentic leadership, attrition, and finding control. DISCUSSION: The finding suggests African born Black nurses' experiences are uniquely and qualitatively different from that of their American born counterparts. Creating healthy work environment require authentic nurse leaders who can influence and support others in its achievement.

Experiences of Nigerian Internationally Educated Nurses Transitioning to United States Health Care Settings.

INTRODUCTION: Successful transition to practice of internationally educated nurses (IENs) can critically affect quality of care. The aim of this study was to characterize the facilitators and barriers to transition of Nigerian IENs (NIENs) to the United States health care setting. METHOD: Using a descriptive phenomenology approach, 6 NIENs were interviewed about their transitional experiences in the United States. Thematic methods were used for data analysis. RESULTS: The three major themes identified from the participants' stories were "fear/anger and disappointment" (FAD), "road/journey to success/overcoming challenges" (RJO), and "moving forward" (MF). The FAD theme predominated, including experiences of racism, bullying, and inequality. The RJO theme included resilience, and the MF theme encompassed personal growth. DISCUSSION: NIENs face personal and organizational barriers to adaptation, especially fear, anger and disappointment. Future research should seek to develop a model for optimal adaptation that focuses on improving both personal and organizational facilitators and decreasing barriers.