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In 1854, Mary Grant Seacole was a nurse alongside Florence
Nightingale as a volunteer during the Crimean War. Beginning
in 1861, Harriet Tubman served as an unpaid nurse to
wounded civilians and soldiers during the Civil War.
In 1879, Mary Eliza Mahoney became the first African
American to graduate from an American nursing school.
Trailblazing is not a thing of the past: The list of
firsts for African Americans in nursing continues through
1999, when Elnora Daniel became the first African-American
nurse elected president of a major university, Chicago
State University. Many African-American nurses practicing
today remember well the years of feeling as though they
were forging a path by themselves.
"My experiences as a student were very difficult,
extremely hard," said Betty Adams, Ed.D., RN, FAAN,
professor and dean of nursing at Prairie View A&M
University in Texas and a member of the National League
for Nursing Board of Governors.
Adams, who received her nursing degree in 1967, was
in a segregated setting in school in southwestern Louisiana.
"There was the opportunity for me to attend classes,
but basically I had no other interaction or opportunity
to become totally immersed as a student in the university.
There was no place to live on campus, I couldn't take
physical education classes because there was no place
for me to change [clothes]."
Adams lived at home while she earned her nursing degree,
had stalwart family support and didn't let the racial
barriers deflect her focus.
"At that period of time, what I saw each day was
a progressive movement toward change," she said.
"The overall goal that I had was to pass all my
courses, graduate and get my degree. I was not distracted
by things I could not be a participant in."
Although not as widespread today, discrimination and
racism still are "alive and well in the U.S.,"
said Clarke-Tasker, who advises her nursing students
not to take it personally. "Don't get angry. Just
do your job."
For Angela Anderson, RN, running into prejudice was
an educational opportunity. The 27-year-old, a recent
graduate of the nursing program at the University of
the District of Columbia, said she wears African-style
head wraps on a daily basis "as an expression of
culture." While still in school, Anderson went
to her externship job at a nearby hospital and an older
woman at the hospital security office told her to take
her "hat" off.
"I said, 'Excuse me? My hat?' She said, 'Well,
whatever that is on your head.' It was a white head
wrap, was neat, it matched my scrubs. It was not flagrant."
Anderson talked to the woman's supervisor, who apologized
and told the woman that her actions were inappropriate
and disrespectful. Anderson continues to wear a head
wrap to the hospital. "Nurses are always in a position
to educate," Anderson said. "It doesn't always
have to be about health."
For Anderson, the barriers of racism and prejudice
are more of a motivation than a deterrent. "No
one's going to put my fire out," she said. "I'm
going to be an emergency room nurse, and I intend to
go and get my master's degree to be an acute care nurse
practitioner so I can run that emergency room."
Anderson's enthusiasm and dedication are just what
nursing needs to adequately care for America's multicultural
society, said Giger, who co-authored the widely used
textbook Transcultural Nursing: Assessment and Intervention.
"Health care teams need to reflect the demographics
of the U.S., with all racial and cultural groups,"
Giger said. "It's important for African-American
patients to be cared for by African-American nurses.
It is so much better to be given care by someone who
looks like you."
When it comes to offering health care advice-such as
diet or lifestyle choices-Giger thinks the "patient
is more likely to believe that what is being offered
has been experienced by a person who looks like them.
Whether it's true or not, it's a comfort zone,"
she said. "When you're black, it makes it easier
to say [to an African-American patient], 'I understand
what you're going through.' "
The crux comes in trying to recruit more African Americans
into nursing. "Obviously, you go after them with
a vengeance to get them into schools of nursing,"
Giger said. "But it's not all that attractive to
18-year-old graduates. The lack of salary and recognition,
the long hours. You have got to want to do it."
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