I graduated in May 2016 as a first-generation college student. I was the only Black male in a cohort of 75 students. The cohort was considered the most diverse because they had five Black students, one Hmong, and one Filipino. Yes, I said the most diverse.
I was grateful to be mentored by a Black male a few semesters ahead of me, but I struggled in nursing school and felt like instructors were not culturally sensitive to my learning needs. I faced microaggressions, felt anxiety during my clinical to the point I was shaking to pull up medication, and had little support to match or adjust teaching to my learning needs.
I’m going to tell you my story and hope nursing programs can learn to do better for diverse students. I want diverse students to have a better experience than what I had. I want to use the voice given to me that my ancestors did not have to create change. I want to see diverse nurses thrive—not just survive.
Right before I started my nursing program, I was hit by a car. I had some restrictions because I suffered from a left tibia and fibula fracture. I had no strength in my leg and was in pain during my clinical. The instructor knew that I had been in an accident, and they told me to try to help ambulate a patient even though I was barely able to stand myself. That was a safety issue for the patient and for me. I refused.
This same instructor touched my dreadlocks without my permission and said, "Can you get hired with those?" I was so offended that I avoided her while I finished my last semester in nursing school.
Emotionally, my pediatric clinical experience was the worst. I felt like the instructor would try to attack me while I tried to learn. Other students noticed how she treated me, too. It caused me a lot of anxiety and self-doubt. I struggled with my experiences and internalized them, which made me insecure about my position in the program. I suffered in silence.
In the last semester of nursing school, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. In my community health clinical, we participated in a health fair for foster kids. There were two Black students, including my friend and me. The instructor stated that it was a good group with males and waved her hand like she was showing elegant tabletop china as she said, "diversity."
This is just my story. I know there are more out there—some better, some far worse.
All in all, though, the nursing profession has an ethical responsibility to help eliminate health inequities. This starts with educating students in the classroom and supporting diverse students.
I have some recommendations for nursing schools:
- Address the climate of white privilege and create change by reviewing diversity statements. Continuously evaluate your commitment to anti-racism and what is being implemented.
- Create a course that establishes common language, respect, and community agreements to address the firm foundation of racism in America, integrates current events of racism, and utilizes journaling as a reflective and core practice.
- Partner with community centers and interact with diverse populations to make aid with culturally competent nursing schools.
- Use clinical placements to build relationships with communities of color and expose students to other cultures to reduce racial inequities when students become registered nurses.
- Discuss social factors and their impact on racial groups and important diverse figures in history that contribute to nursing and medicine.
- Pair diverse students with culturally sensitive preceptors who have been assessed for their own implicit bias.
This is the time to better support diverse students so they can make positive impacts in the community to reduce health disparities. Diverse students should be empowered, supported, and advocated for within nursing education, in order to do the same for patients when they are licensed. Healthcare is in need of the diversity and in need of talented students to discover themselves to make their contributions to advance nursing.
Ronald Harris Jr., BSN, RN, is a member of Sigma’s Omega Gamma Chapter.