Nurse Who Founded Her Own American Heart Association Training Center Is the First Black Woman Inducted into the Academy of Emergency Nurses

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December 6, 2023

By Kui Mwai, Blavity

Nurses of color are underrepresented in their field. (Getty Images)

Texas nurse Shawntay Harris has made history as the first Black woman inducted into the Academy of Emergency Nurses. Harris, whose nursing career began in 2000, founded Eminent CPR. This lifesaving American Heart Association training center helps nurses and other medical professionals learn and teach CPR.

According to Daily Nurse, Harris opened Eminent CPR in 2006. In addition to her work at the center, she also offers “courses from the Emergency Nurses Association, then my own courses.”

The Academy of Emergency Nurses highlights nurses who have made “enduring, substantial contributions to emergency nursing and helped advance the emergency nursing profession, including the healthcare system in which emergency nursing is delivered.”

[…]

Harris believes that seeing someone like her being recognized on this level will positively impact patients.

The full article talks about the importance of a shared identity between a patient and their provider.

Due to medical racism, many Black people don’t go to the doctor.

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