Fast Facts about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Nursing: Building Competencies for an Antiracism Practice

Awarded third place in the 2022 AJN Book of the Year Awards in Nursing Education/Continuing Education/Professional Development

Delivers a comprehensive toolbox for understanding race and racism at structural, institutional, and individual levels

This nursing handbook introduces and defines key terms about race and racism for nurses, nursing students, and nurse educators. It addresses how race and racism act as structural and core social determinants of health and propel health inequities. It moves beyond a focus on multicultural approaches for understanding inequity toward a recognition of the broader impact that both systemic and structural racism have had on inequality in health and life opportunities. Through a social justice lens, the book underscores how nurses, as frontline health professionals, need to understand racism as a factor behind these inequities and its significance to their working environment and nursing practice.

In concise chapters with brief paragraphs and bulleted information, this practical handbook offers strategies for how to productively engage in a dialogue about race and racism. It considers the history of racism in the United States and then breaks down how it operates at structural, institutional, and individual levels. Case studies illustrate such concepts as microaggressions, implicit bias, power, privilege, and intersectionality in order to foster understanding and provide opportunities for both self-reflection and collective conversation.

Key Features:

• Delivers clear and easy-to-read content in concise, bulleted format
• Empowers nurses to initiate conversations about race and racism in the workplace and classroom with confidence and ease
• Provides an historical context for understanding how racism contributes to inequities in health and economic opportunities
• Illustrates concepts with case studies and reflection questions
• Features "Fast Facts" boxes that highlight essential information at a glance
• Promotes the concepts of antiracism, diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging

Anne-Marie O'Brien, PhD, MA, WHNP-BC, is a nursing professor in the Frances M. Maguire School of Nursing and Health Professions at Gwynedd Mercy University, Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania, and a Research Fellow at the Center for Public Policy, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was previously a nurse scientist at Inova Health System and a Clinical Assistant Professor at The George Washington University School of Nursing where she also served as the Director of ABSN Clinical Education. Dr. O'Brien earned her BA in French, her BSN, and MSN from the University of Pennsylvania. She earned her MA in French from UCLA. Dr. O'Brien practiced as a women's health nurse practitioner for 9 years in private practice in the field of reproductive endocrinology before going on to earn her PhD in Nursing and Healthcare Innovation with a focus on gerontology from Arizona State University.

Over the last 30 years, she has worked for and with community organizations, academic institutions, and health systems in the belief that we can more effectively address racial and health inequities when we bring together our unique life experiences and expertise. Her clinical practice, research, and teaching have all centered on the social and ecological factors that influence a person's engagement in health promotion and shared decision-making. Dr. O'Brien is also an advocate for social justice and its impact on health disparities, and believes nurses play a crucial role in partnering with communities to make positive change. Dr. O'Brien's research has appeared in The Western Journal of Nursing Research, Nursing Research, Medical Research Archives, and Academic Medicine. Her program of research continues to critically examine institutional and societal power structures and to identify strategies for promoting health equity and social justice.