Remembering the contributions of Black nurses to Canadian nursing

This year, the theme for Black History Month in Canada is “Black Legacy and Leadership: Celebrating Canadian History and Uplifting Future Generations.” It is a theme that invites Canadians to pause, reflect on, and acknowledge the diversity of Black Canadians and the important contributions of Black Canadians to Canadian society.

Talking about contemporary matters related to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the discipline and profession of nursing requires a discussion on the history of nursing in Canada. Nurses ought to consider how the history of nursing was written, by whom, and how this influences nursing today.  

Black nurses in Canada have historically been placed at the margins of nursing in many ways – in the written history of Canadian nursing, in the profession of nursing and in the discipline of nursing. We are at an important turning point, once again, in society. The last five years have brought acute awareness around the globe about anti-Black racism; however, recently in North America, there have been public policy shifts to pull away from concepts such as equity and inclusion.

The history of Black nurses worldwide is a tale of contrasts. On the one hand, this history conveys the exclusions and untold stories of Black nurses as a result of colonial and chattel slavery ideologies of anti-Blackness and Black inferiority and, on the other, it portrays the Black nurse as enduring racism and discrimination, of becoming successful (in the eyes of white society), or opening the door for other Black nurses to follow, despite constantly experiencing the aftermath of colonialism and chattel slavery.  (De Sousa et al., 2024, p. 18) 

As we’re celebrating Black History Month, let us take a moment to remember the contributions of Black nurses to Canadian nursing. Although there is a paucity of historical accounts of Black Canadian nurses, this silence in the history of nursing calls us to look at the current work of Canadian nursing scholars to piece together artifacts, data, knowledge, and stories of Black Nurses to re-shape and tell the history of nursing in Canada.  

In Canada, Black women were not permitted to enter nursing schools until the mid-1940s. Shaped by racism and attitudes towards Black People, particularly women who wanted to become professional nurses, Black women who were denied entry to Canadian nursing schools were forced to study nursing in the United States of America. 

Eventually Black women were admitted to Canadian nursing schools and graduated as professional nurses. However, nurses continued to experience decades of discrimination and racism as a result of the lasting effects of colonialism. We encourage you to explore and read the works of nursing scholars such as De Sousa and colleagues and Flynn to capture a glimpse into the history of Black nurses in Canada’s past and how this history awakens us to current disparities in the practice and discipline of nursing. 

History gives important lessons to learn from and to critically reflect on how we can act on past social injustices to create an inclusive nursing profession founded on social justice and equity. We invite you again to think about and have conversations about Black nurses’ legacy and leadership of past and present, and how this will shape future generations – both in nursing and in Canadian society as a whole. Black Canadians have a rightful place in the nation's narrative, with over 400 years of history in Canada and over a century in Canadian nursing.

 

References and Further Reading (Selected)

Calliste A. Women of exceptional merit: immigration of Caribbean nurses to Canada. Can J Women L. 1993; 6(1):85-102.

Cooper Brathwaite, A., Varsailles, D., & Haynes, D. (2023). Building solidarity with Black nurses to dismantle systemic and structural racism in nursing. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 24(1), 5-16.

Cooper Brathwaite, A., Versailles, D., Juüdi‐Hope, D. A., Coppin, M., Jefferies, K., Bradley, R., ... & Grinspun, D. (2022). Black nurses in action: A social movement to end racism and discrimination. Nursing Inquiry, 29(1), e12482.

De Sousa, I., Wytenbroek, L., Boschma, G., & Thorne, S. (2024). Reflections on Black Nurses' Invisibility: Exploring the Contribution of Black Nurses to British Columbia (Canada), 1845-1910. Advances in Nursing Science, 47(1), 16-28.

Flynn, K. (2009). Beyond the glass wall: Black Canadian nurses, 1940-1970. Nursing History Review, 17, 129.doi:10.1891/1062-8061.17.129

Jefferies, K., Goldberg, L., Aston, M., & Tomblin Murphy, G. (2018). Understanding the invisibility of Black nurse leaders using a Black feminist poststructuralist framework. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(15-16), 3225-3234.

Jefferies, Keisha, Chelsa States, Vanessa MacLennan, Melissa Helwig, Jacqueline Gahagan, Wanda Thomas Bernard, Marilyn Macdonald, Gail Tomblin Murphy, and Ruth Martin-Misener. "Black nurses in the nursing profession in Canada: a scoping review." International Journal for Equity in Health 21, no. 1 (2022): 102.

McPherson KM. Bedside Matters: The Transformation of Canadian Nursing, 1900-1990. Oxford University Press; 1996. https://go.exlibris.link/3kj2Gvhg