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In focusing on the dynamics between first-generation immigrants and native nurses, Ham’s findings clarify how immigrant’s caring practices are adapted to expectations in a Dutch context. Ham (2020), looking specifically at the Netherlands, notes that first-generation immigrants from East Africa experience refusal and noncompliance from elders in the nursing home where they work. experience both overt forms of racism such as receiving derogatory racial slurs from patients, as well as more subtle forms of racism, including patient non-compliance and questioning of authority ( Cottingham et al., 2018). reported more stress and were three times more likely to say they wanted to leave the profession than white nurses.
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(2007) found that nurses of color in the U.S. Nursing scholars have examined the underrepresentation and experiences of racial/ethnic, or “visible minorities,” in Europe and North America ( Berdes & Eckert, 2001 Ham, 2020 Institute of Medicine, 2011 Jefferies et al., 2019 Premji & Etowa, 2014 Tuttas, 2015). We ask, how do Dutch female nurses of color experience their work? What role might sexism, racism, and nativism play in their daily experiences as nurses? This study aims to examine the experiences of female nurses of color in the Netherlands. Whiteness is generally normalized in the Netherlands ( Dyer, 2002) and the Dutch emphasis on tolerance and progressive values often masks continuing forms of overt and subtle racism ( Wekker, 2016). While racial categories are widely recognized by scholars as a social construct without biological foundation, the social ramifications of phenotypical differences (namely, skin color) remain relevant for shaping social interactions, including interactions that result in differential treatment ( Golash-Boza, 2016).
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Nursing scholars argue that experiences of discrimination and racism are key barriers to successful recruitment and retention of diverse nurses and can hinder the provision of culturally competent care ( Tuttas, 2015). A legacy of associating nursing with white, middle-class women continues in North American and Europe ( Glenn, 1992 Premji & Etowa, 2014 Puzan, 2003 van Riemsdijk, 2010 Wooten & Branch, 2012). In Canada, “visible and linguistic minorities” remain “under-represented in managerial positions and over-represented in lower ranking position” in healthcare occupations ( Premji & Etowa, 2014, p. registered nurses ( Institute of Medicine, 2011), while they make up around 27 percent of the total population ( Humes et al., 2011). Racial and ethnic minorities make up roughly 17 percent of U.S. In the Netherlands, where non-Western migrants make up 13 percent of the population ( Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2019), less than 7 percent of nursing graduates have a non-Western background ( Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2015). Nursing is one form of care work that is predominantly performed by white women in North America and Western Europe. Globally, the nursing profession remains an occupation marked as feminine, with women making up the majority of nurses throughout Western and non-Western countries ( Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek, 2016 Institute of Medicine, 2011 World Health Organization, 2020).
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