Discourse of race and racism in nursing: An integrative review of literature

Background: Race is a barrier and source of inequality affecting ethnic minorities in nursing practice and education. Purpose: This integrative review study aimed to determine whether racism and institutionalized racism are explicitly named in the titles and abstracts of peer-reviewed publications on nursing education, leadership, and the nursing profession, and to explore the depth of discussion of racialized concepts in peer-reviewed nursing literature. Method: Whittemore and Knafl's integrative review approach was used to review 23 studies published in nursing journals published from 2008 to 2020. Findings: Four themes were extracted: the context of racism discussions in the literature; consequences of experiences of racism; emotional and physical effects of racism on nurses and students of color; and scholars’ recommendations. Discussion: Nursing must start to openly acknowledge the issue of racism within the profession, and to address it by providing safe spaces for authentic dialogue in academic and practice settings.