Professional development experiences and circumstances that prepare nursing faculty to teach anti-racism: An integrative review

AIM: Confronting racism in healthcare and the white ideology underpinning nursing is a shared responsibility amongst all nurses. Upholding anti-racism within nursing education is crucial to transform the profession from racist complicity to courageous co-liberation. Yet many nursing faculty feel uncomfortable teaching anti-racism, despite being professionally mandated with this work. This review seeks to answer: What professional development experiences and circumstances support the preparation of nurse faculty to engage learners in anti-racism education within nursing programs? DESIGN: Integrative review. DATA SOURCES: Articles were sourced from Ovid Embase, Ovid MEDLine, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Ovid PyschINFO, Proquest Education Resources Information Center, Proquest Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts and Proquest for Dissertations and Theses. REVIEW METHOD: Thematic analysis. RESULTS: 61 articles published between 2015 and 2024, were coded into three themes: Learning Methods, Topics of Learning, and Ecology of Learning. CONCLUSIONS: Because of the invisible nature of racism (to those with racial privilege), substantial unlearning and relearning must occur. Uncritical and institutionalized knowledge, practices, attitudes and beliefs freeze individuals and institutions in outdated and harmful states that do not reflect the broader sociopolitical environment. Through unlearning, long-held perspectives are challenged by new information, creating inner turbulence, which must be overcome in the process of reconciling perspectives. Relearning occurs when new knowledge becomes integrated as new truths.