Georgetown University’s School of Nursing hosted a screening and panel discussion of the documentary “Everybody’s Work,” a film by Chad Tingle and SHIFT Films intended to raise awareness about racism in nursing, Jan. 23. 

The film was produced with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which found in its 2022 and 2023 reports that a majority of nurses who identify as people of color have experienced racism in the workplace from both colleagues and patients. “Everybody’s Work” features nurses and other healthcare professionals, each with a unique story of how they have seen the effects of racism manifest in their personal and professional lives.

A panel discussion followed the screening and featured some of the interviewees in the documentary.

Kenya Beard, inaugural dean and chief nursing officer of the School of Nursing at Mercy University, spoke about the importance of “Everybody’s Work” in the context of a troubled history during which nurses have not always had the liberty to disclose the discrimination they were facing.

“This documentary provides such penetrating insights into what racism looks like, what that experience is like, how it’s happening right alongside you — whether you know it or not,” Beard said at the event, “and what we can collectively do about it, because there is no zero sum. When one group suffers, society suffers.”

Beard added that, until recently, there has been limited awareness and conversation surrounding this pervasive issue.

“If you Googled Black, nursing and racism, you’d be hard-pressed to find any articles prior to 2020, George Floyd,” Beard said at the event. “We were muted. We weren’t allowed to talk about it. And you knew it was happening — you felt it.”

Among the issues the documentary touched upon were the barriers to entry that nursing students from minority backgrounds and marginalized identities can face.

Anna Maria Valdez, professor of nursing at Sonoma State University and editor-in-chief of the Journal of Emergency Nursing, attested to the importance of external encouragement in her decision to become a registered nurse (RN).

“I believe I was encouraged to become an RN because I am phenotypically white,” Valdez said in the documentary.

The documentary highlights the disparities between RN and licensed practical nurse (LPN) programs. The latter, which require less time and money, tend to be more diverse. While LPNs make immensely valuable contributions to nursing, often serving as the first line of patient care by performing core tasks such as taking vitals and administering medications, they make about $26,000 less annually than registered nurses.

Valdez said nursing students from minority backgrounds often face discouragement from enrolling in RN programs and are instead channeled toward LPN programs. 

“People who come in who are racialized as non-white get directed to that track,” Valdez said. 

Katie Boston-Leary, director of nursing programs at the American Nurses Association, said during the panel that RN programs sometimes do not provide students — especially those who work to financially support themselves while studying — with sufficient resources to succeed. Additionally, many nursing positions at large institutions require a four-year Bachelor of Science in nursing, thereby shutting out graduates of associate’s degree programs.

“It’s been an unspoken, dirty-laundry type of issue in nursing,” Boston-Leary said. 

Monica McLemore, professor of nursing and director of the Manning Price Spratlen Center for Anti-Racism and Equity in Nursing at the University of Washington, said racism in the profession affects not only nurses but also the patients they serve. Studies have shown that race concordance, or treatment by healthcare providers of the same racial or ethnic background as the patient, improves patient experiences, outcomes and trust in the medical system. 

“People know what they need,” McLemore said. “Another shared value of nursing is that we’re in service — to people, the public, communities. What does the person or people in front of you want or need and how can you connect them to getting those needs met?” 

In the film, Sonya Frazier, co-founder and president of the Oklahoma Indigenous Nurses Association, discussed the importance of cultural competence in nursing, since understanding the context behind a patient’s condition is essential to understanding their needs. Rates of diabetes among Native Americans, for example, are three times higher than those in the rest of the U.S. population, and rates of alcoholism are over six times higher.

“This is all related to the historical trauma that we have gone through,” Frazier said in the film.

Frazier related a personal memory of caring for her mother during a vulnerable time, incorporating elements of indigenous belief systems together with modern medicine. She highlighted the power of nurses to shape people’s experiences during what may be some of their toughest days. 

Lucinda Canty, associate professor of nursing at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said during the panel that activism surrounding this issue may face particular pushback in the current political climate, but this only makes it even more important that the conversation continues. 

“Let’s talk about it so it doesn’t happen to students who come after us,” Canty said. 

McLemore added that when systemic barriers obstruct minority nurses from reaching their full potential, a vicious cycle ensues in which future generations of nurses are also deterred from pursuing their ambitions. 

“People can’t be what they don’t see,” McLemore said in the documentary. “The work of DEI, at least in nursing, should be everybody’s work.”