Roy Thompson, PhD student, and Michael Cary, Elizabeth C. Clipp Term Chair in Nursing, contributed to a recently published AcademyHealth blog, “Nursing Health Services Researchers Stand Firm in the Fight for Racial Equity and Justice.” AcademyHealth is the professional home and leading national organization for health services researchers, policymakers and health care practitioners and stakeholders. Within AcademyHealth, there are several research interest groups that facilitate interaction of individuals around specific topic areas relating to health services research and health policy. Thompson and Cary contributed to the blog as part of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues (IRGNI).

Excerpt

Systemic racism must be treated as a public health crisis requiring systemic solutions to achieve racial equity and justice. Over the past 18 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed the horrendous consequences of racial disparities and inequities on marginalized communities and an already burdened pandemic health care landscape. People have coalesced globally to protest police violence against individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups including but not limited to people who self-identify as Black, African American and/or Hispanic. Racist state violence has resulted in the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Sandra Bland and countless others.

This moment in our nation’s history should not be just symbolic but transformative. Wide-reaching and sustained efforts are needed to eradicate the roots of systemic racism. IRGNI, in collaboration with AcademyHealth, will collaborate with AcademyHealth and other academic and clinical institutions to accomplish the following goals.