A unified call to action from Australian nursing and midwifery leaders: ensuring that Black lives matter

Beyond 2020: Addressing racism through transformative Indigenous health and cultural safety education

“…The Black Lives Matter movement condemns Black deaths in custody and the entrenched systematic racism that allows it to continue. In Australia, it resonated with the Aboriginal deaths in custody movement and prompted a call for action among Australian nursing and midwifery leaders to transform curricula to ensure the workforce had the necessary skills, knowledge and attributes to address systematic racism (Geia et al, 2020) and through this action address one of the greatest barriers to increasing the numbers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (West, 2012).…”

“…Third, nursing and midwifery curriculum must include cultural safety and its association with professional and institutional racism to be able to address the cultural and social determinants of Indigenous Peoples. Lastly, Geia et al (2020) highlight the paradox and tensions inherent in the ‘us and them’ paradigm in the nursing and midwifery professions, referring to the need to transcend the traditional binaries of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous nurses, midwives, researchers and educators and hierarchies that create tension between. Geia (2020) later clarified this last point referring to the ‘double edged sword’ where both non‐Indigenous and Indigenous educators and health professionals needed to examine their own biases in their collaborations with colleagues.…”

“…To ensure curricula is inclusive of truth telling and Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing across course content and to enable educators and students to meet objectives of achieving health equity for Indigenous people, the dominant cultural paradigms in nursing and midwifery curricula development must be challenged (Drummond, 2020; Geia et al, 2020; West, 2012). It is imperative that all involved in teaching Indigenous health content are knowledgeable, skilled and confident in their understanding and application of Indigenous health content in nursing and midwifery curricula (Geia et al, 2020).…”

“…In their recent call to action, Geia et al (2020) outlined four principles needed to enact transformation throughout nursing and midwifery curricula. First, recognition that every Australian nurse and midwife has a role in addressing the health inequities that confine Indigenous health outcomes.…”

Will nurse leaders help eradicate ‘hair racism’ from nursing and health services?

“…The Momentum of the Black LivesMatter movement, triggered by the brutal killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others, evoked worldwide condemnation. A global groundswell of anti-racist awareness has demanded the identification and dismantling of the panoply of structural and systemic racisms and oppressions that continue to pervade every aspect of black experience, including in nursing and health services(Burnett et al, 2020;Geia et al, 2020;Moorley et al, 2020).…”