BA, Bachelor of Psychiatric Nursing Student
Presenting on: Wednesday October 20
Session Title: Having Hard Conversations about Racism within Nursing Education: Reflections on the process of developing an anti-racism action plan collaboratively with students and faculty
Session description: The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Elijah McClain, and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests that occurred in the United States of America in early 2020 prompted global response to address racism that exists within systemic and social structures. Third-year psychiatric nursing students in a small Western university answered the call to action. They initiated an anti-racism action plan process that involved students and faculty to address racism within theory, lab, and clinical educational settings. This presentation describes the process of creating the anti-racism action plan and uses collective autoethnography to analyze the experiences of the students and faculty involved in this shared endeavor.
Learning Objectives:
1) To assess major differences regarding the students’ and faculty’s experiences in the creation of an anti-racism action plan.
2) To share the lessons learned that can guide future anti-racism action plan processes.
Speaker Biography: Akech Mayuom is a fourth-year student at Brandon University where she is pursuing a degree in Psychiatric Nurse. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from Canadian Mennonite University. As a research assistant, she has worked on collaborative projects focused on developing interactive anti-racism resources as well as creating safe spaces for BIPOC students. She volunteers for the South Sudanese Communities of Manitoba in leading workshops on mental illness and trauma. Akech’s family came to Canada as refugees and as such, she has seen first-hand the unique challenges her community faces. Upon completion of her undergraduate studies, she intends to further her knowledge on the lived experiences of immigrants and refugees.
Dharti Prajapati (co-presenter)
Student at Brandon University
Dharti Prajapati is a full-time student in the Department of Psychiatric Nursing at Brandon University. Dharti traveled to Canada as an international student from India for better education, research opportunities, and to give back to her community. Dharti was placed on the Dean’s list in the year 2020-2021, volunteered in the Brandon University Hearing Voices workshop and supported Westman Immigrant Services in developing Newcomers a Safe place to Share module. Her research interest includes working with youth on anti-racism approaches, understanding the trauma faced by individuals with sexual assault, and working with elderly on well-being and health.