Introduction
Racism in the workplace is an ongoing issue in Australia and negatively impacts nurse-patient/professional relationships, patient care, and health outcomes. It is not known how healthcare nursing leaders view or respond to racism in the workplace. The study aimed to investigate regional healthcare nurse leaders’ knowledge, attitudes and practices concerning racism in the workplace.
Methods
The design for this pilot survey was informed and facilitated by an online survey containing quantitative and qualitative questions. Healthcare nurse leaders working in New South Wales regional healthcare settings (n=8) provided perspectives on workplace racism. This paper reports only on the quantitative responses as no one opted for interviews.
The participants in this study self-identified as holding a current health nursing leader’s role within a primary, secondary, or tertiary healthcare setting in regional Australia. Regionality was self-determined. The survey recruiting occurred over three months and involved disseminating information via a webpage on known social media platforms. Quantitative analysis was undertaken with descriptive and inferential statistics to identify factors that may have impacted the healthcare nursing leaders’ lived experiences of racism.
Results
The study presents findings postulating that racism within Australian healthcare institutions exists, as confirmed by the healthcare nursing leaders. The study provides key findings, recommendations/implications for practice and priorities for research with reference to knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare nursing leaders regarding racism at their workplaces.
Conclusions
This body of research illustrates that racism within Australian healthcare institutions remains a challenge despite the existence of organisational strategies and the nursing leaders’ commitments in dealing with racism. The evidence shows the need for nursing leaders and organisations to proactively review and implement strategies to optimise management, institutional and research mitigating factors to reduce racism and ensure culturally safe environments for all.