College of Nursing faculty members Melissa Lehan Mackin (PI) and Lynette Cooper, along with Lastacia Coleman, Nicole Loew, Stephanie Edmonds, and Janell Bell, were recently awarded funding from the Daisy Foundation Health Equity Grant for their research project “Clinical Experiences of Racism Encountered by Black Women Seeking Non-Pregnancy Related Reproductive Healthcare.”

According to the project abstract, “nurses have the opportunity to be at the forefront of dismantling racism with the power to enact change locally and beyond. Racism is a powerful social determinant of health that produces chronic stress with damaging effects on the physical body.”

The research team plans to partner with the Black Women’s Maternal Health Collective (BWMHC), a local support organization for sharing health experiences, to interview nurses and collect data. Findings will be disseminated to academic and lay audiences. Metanarratives will be used in anti-bias trainings and a critical review of women’s accounts will be used to develop recommendations for clinical change agents as a preliminary step toward ending discrimination in the health care arena.

Congratulations to Drs. Cooper, Lehan Mackin and their team!