Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has placed significant strain on United States’ health care and health care providers. While most Americans were sheltering in place, nurses headed to work. Many lacked adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), increasing the risk of becoming infected or infecting others. Some health care organizations were not transparent with their nurses; many nurses were gagged from speaking up about the conditions in their workplaces. This study used a descriptive phenomenological design to describe the lived experience of acute care nurses working with limited access to PPE during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Unstructured interviews were conducted with 28 acute care nurses via telephone, WebEx, and Zoom. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The major theme, emotional roller coaster, describes the varied intense emotions the nurses experienced during the early weeks of the pandemic, encompassing eight subthemes: scared and afraid, sense of isolation, anger, betrayal, overwhelmed and exhausted, grief, helpless and at a loss, and denial. Other themes include: self‐care, ‘hoping for the best’, ‘nurses are not invincible’, and ‘I feel lucky’. The high levels of stress and mental assault resulting from the COVID‐19 crisis call for early stress assessment of nurses and provision of psychological intervention to mitigate lasting psychological trauma.
Background
There is a paucity of Black and minority ethnic group nurse leaders and faculty in the nursing profession, even though the overall number of nurses within this demographic has increased. This study aimed to examine Black nurses' perceptions of the barriers to career advancement in nursing profession in the United States.
Procedure
Participants included 30 Black nurses aged 25 to 65 from health care settings across five US states recruited through purposive sampling. The study used a focused ethnographic design with semi‐structured interviews to elicit responses about participants perceptions and experiences of seeking leadership and faculty positions.
Results
Thematic analysis revealed seven main themes: maintaining white comfort, distrust, no one like me, paving the way, worthy of representation, leadership role not expected of Black nurses, and an advanced degree does not equal advanced opportunities.
Conclusion
The findings suggest that Black nurses face significant challenges in entering leadership or faculty positions. They face racial discrimination and lack access to mentorship and support which discourages sufficiently qualified and experienced nurses from applying for high‐level positions. Ensuring all nurses are afforded equal opportunity for career advancement is essential for the nursing profession's continued growth.
Research has shown that racism adds to and significantly exacerbates the risk for health disparities among patients (Peek et al., 2010), along with a loss of opportunities in the nursing profession (Iheduru-Anderson, 2020a). In 2002, Jones demanded that health care professionals explicitly name race and racism in the discussion of the health and well-being of the U.S. population. Adding that initiatives aimed at addressing and eliminating racial health disparities must explore the fundamental causes which are rooted in racism (Jones, 2002). The nursing sector should be concerned with issues such as racism. Race, in particular, has been shown to cause inequality in nursing prac
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