Nursing Associations Call for Action Against Racism

Over the past month, a growing number of nursing associations have been calling upon members of the profession to take action against racism.

The first official remarks appeared the day after George Floyd’s death. On May 31, the Minnesota Nurses Association issued a press release stating that “nurses continue to see the devastating effects of systematic racism and oppression targeting people of color in our communities. We demand justice for George Floyd and a stop to the unnecessary death of black men at the hands of those who should protect them.”

The Board of Directors of the New York State Nurses Association declared, “As nurses, we mourn for the hundreds of Black men and women killed by the police every year, like Breonna Taylor, an EMT studying to be a nurse in Louisville, Kentucky.” The NYSNA called upon nurses to “fight against the bigotry, intolerance, and hate fueling current politics and feeding an armed white supremacist movement that threatens our democracy.”

This is “a pivotal moment,” according to ANA President Ernest J. Grant. In a June 1 statement, he urged US nurses “to use our voices to call for change. To remain silent is to be complicit.”

Calling racism “a public health crisis,” the Washington State Nurses Association said, “Racism has a 400 year history in America – and the hand of racism rests heavily on the health care system and public health. We know that people of color face systemic barriers to accessing health care and being listened to or heard. It is the reason African American women face higher rates of maternal death and why the burden of the coronavirus pandemic is falling more heavily on people of color. It is why African Americans have the highest death rate and shortest survival of any racial and ethnic group in the US for most cancers. It is why African Americans are almost twice as likely to die from a firearm than their white counterparts. And, it is why we as nurses must look racism in the face and call it what it is.”

The Oregon Nurses Association commented, “As nurses, it is our duty and our calling to protect and serve the health and well-being of the entire community. That duty extends particularly to people of color who are especially vulnerable in this healthcare system.” In an interview with Austin station KXAN, Dr. Cindy Zolnierek, CEO of the Texas Nurses Association, echoed Grant’s statement, saying, “This is core to our ethics. It’s human rights so we cannot stand on the sidelines. To be silent is to be complicit. So, we have a role in this. We have a role to play in advancing human rights – in advancing health care.”

The Kentucky Nurses Association released a seven-point action plan to combat racism both in the profession and in the culture at large. The plan includes goals such as “training for nurses regarding racial disparities,” promoting the “recruitment of African American nurses and other nurses of color to serve on boards and commissions and leadership positions within our organization as well as others that focus on health,” and the addition of “cultural competency training, bias training and disparity education in every Kentucky nursing school curriculum.”

The Massachusetts Nurses Association also spoke out: “As nurses and healing professionals… we recognize institutional racism and the systematic oppression of communities of color as both a crisis in public health and a pervasive obstacle to achieving the goals of our work in both nursing practice and in the labor movement.”

Other nursing organizations issued anti-racism action statements as well, including the American Academy of Nursing, the International Family Nursing Association, the Rheumatology Nurses Society, and the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses.