Several of faculty and leadership are featured in the Creative Nursing – Vol. 27 #1, "In It Together: Dismantling Systems of White Supremacy."

Entrenched White Supremacy in Nursing Education Administrative Structures 
Brigit Carter, associate dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and G. Rumay Alexander, of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

These authors confront the entrenched white supremacy that maintains and reinforces the disparities in representation between white nurses and nurses of color in leadership positions in schools of nursing. They present statistics about these disparities within faculties, as well as data about the Browning and graying of America that make a diverse nursing workforce ever more crucial. But they also remind readers of the anecdotal disparities: the stories of white people in faculty leadership positions that contain the theme of being “chosen” – that “someone saw something in them,” in contrast to stories shared by faculty of color who feel the need to meet many requirements, earn countless certifications, and complete endless fellowships, to achieve the same positions as their white counterparts. “Values cannot be aspirational; they must be lived. Diversity is a fact that can be measured. Equity is a practice. Inclusion is a goal. Where the implicit is not made explicit, injustices flourish.”

Revolutionizing the Nursing Curriculum
Carter and Beth Phillips, associate professor

These authors advocate for incorporating social determinants of health (SDH) throughout nursing curricula: Teaching assessment of SDH creates an invaluable context for future nursing professionals to provide appropriate delivery of care, health education, and recommendations and longitudinal support to patients and families of various populations. Race and ethnicity are social constructs that artificially divide people into groups based on characteristics such as physical appearance, ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation, cultural history, ethnic classification, and the social, economic and political needs of a society at a given time.

White Supremacy and Rooting Out Racism in Nursing Education
Amie Koch, assistant professor

This author advocates for openness about race, and advocates against color-blindness. Health-care professionals and health-care systems cannot embrace the values needed to reduce health disparities if they are governed by prohibitions against open and honest discourse. Noticing differences is part of healthy neurological development; racial colorblindness damages children’s ability to embrace equity and distorts their engagement with and interpretation of reality. Educators must make a commitment to learning and teaching the truth that racism, oppression, and white privilege have as great an impact on health as biology and genetics.

Uprooting Racism: The Role of Nurses in Cultivating Improved Maternal Outcomes for Black/African American Women

Jacquelyn McMillian-Bohler and Angela Richard-Eaglin, assistant professors

“Adverse maternal outcomes of Black and African American women occur when the effects of structural racism reverberate through the determinants of health.” The physiological impact of caregiver disregard, stereotyping, and microaggressions on health outcomes is magnified by the psychosocial impact: “Patients may feel reluctant to disclose critical health information or to follow medical advice if their provider appears to minimize or dismiss their concerns, or fails to respond to symptomatic complaints due to racism. Moving nursing practice toward health equity requires intentionality, mutually beneficial collaboration with patients, and nursing practices that support the social, physiological, economic, and environmental determinants of health.”