A Nurse Educator's Perspective about Institutional Racism and White Supremacy in Nursing Education

Abstract

In the United States, nursing education programs at mostly white institutions are led by faculty that are 80% white. This absence of diversity is a symptom of systemic racism and white supremacy reinforced through built systems of inequity and economic constraints that influence accessibility of nursing education programs. White cultural norms drive standards of professionalism and assimilation within nursing education programs. These standards are formulated from white cultural supremacy and contribute to the unconscious biases of nursing faculty. It is necessary to examine these biases to reduce potential and realized inequities for students of color in current nursing education programs. Challenging and changing these cultural norms can contribute to the dismantling of systemic racism and white supremacy in nursing education and the profession of nursing, thereby increasing the diversity of the professional workforce.