Date of Award
8-2026
Document Type
Dissertation
Selected Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) Nursing
Department
Nursing
School
School of Nursing and Health Sciences
Abstract
The 2022 American Nurses Association (ANA) study on racism and racial inequality within the nursing profession both acknowledges the presence of racism in nursing and provides evidence of the diverse negative social and psychological effects of racism on minority nurses. Although the 2022 ANA study sets a precedent and shows evidence of racism’s effects across the broader professional nursing workforce, there is limited nursing research literature that offers a focused presentation and understanding of the lived experiences of minority nurses and their personal perceptions of workplace racism. There is also limited nursing research on how workplace racism impacts cultural and ethnic minority nurses and their specific work experiences, which may be differently nuanced across the distinctive range of nursing specialties. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative inquiry study was to explore the personal stories and perceptions of Black/African American Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses regarding their experiences with racism in the acute ICU healthcare delivery workplace. The study sought to discover how Black nurses in the ICU setting encounter, perceive, interpret, and respond to negative racial experiences in the highly acute, technologically specialized, and stressful ICU work environment. Thirteen Black ICU nurses were individually interviewed and asked about their lived experiences and perceptions of negative racial encounters in their ICU workplace. The three-dimensional narrative inquiry methodological approach of Clandinin and Connolly (2000) guided the structure of the collection of sample nurse narratives, while Braun and Clarke’s (2021) six-phase thematic analysis approach was used to examine the collected nursing data set. Five prominent themes and one subtheme revealed in the data encapsulated the nurses’ perceptions of the negative encounters they experienced in the ICU workspace. These themes took the form of nurses perceiving they are devalued as African American individuals and as medical professionals, revealed nurses’ emotional coping mechanisms in the situation, and revealed their understanding of workplace social and racial barriers to receiving specialized training needed for professional advancement within the ICU. This study aimed to capture the unique “voice” of ethnic minority nurses’ experiences and perceptions and to place those experiences within the evidence-based literature on racism in professional nursing. The study sought to provide evidence-based data to nursing leaders to support ICU workplace change measures that improve the retention of Black ICU nurses, foster healthy work environments for minority nurses, and promote better ICU patient care outcomes. The study also aimed to provide insight to healthcare leaders and policy makers to develop and support more effective institutional policies and workplace behavioral strategies for addressing racism in the ICU.
Related Pillar(s)
Study
Recommended Citation
Butler, Sharon M., "Telling Their Intensive Stories: Black/African American Intensive Care Unit Nurses and Their Perceived Encounters with ICU Workplace Racism" (2026). Theses & Dissertations. 250.
https://digitalcommons.molloy.edu/etd/250
