How lived experiences, cultural identity, and emancipatory knowing expand what counts as nursing knowledge
Guest Contributor: Patricia Isela Regalado
PhD candidate in Nursing, Texas Woman’s University
Nursing has always been more than a profession for me- it is a calling shaped by survival, service, and a deep conviction that knowledge must reflect the realities of the people we care for. As a first-generation Mexican American nurse scholar, my journey from the Franklin D. Roosevelt housing projects to PhD candidacy has transformed how I understand nursing knowledge-not as static theory, but as a living, evolving process grounded in human experience.
My mother immigrated from Durango, Mexico, and raised me amid poverty and violence. She often said, “La educacion es tu manera de salir”- education is your way out. That truth became my compass. I worked night shifts as a sitter while studying for my Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) credential, and then advanced through my LVN, ADN, BSN, and MSN degrees, one step at a time, and financed by my GI bill. Today, as I prepare to defend my PhD portfolio at Texas Woman’s University, I carry her words and my lived experience into the heart of my scholarship.
Whose Knowledge Counts?
Nursing is built upon multiple patterns of knowing, yet the perspectives shaping those patterns have not always represented the diversity of the profession or the communities we serve. Nurses of color-especially Hispanic and Black scholars-remain underrepresented as theorists, authors, and academic leaders.
According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2023), nearly 80% of registered nurses identify as White, while only 7% identify as Hispanic/Latino. Among full-time nursing faculty, representation is lower – 3-4% identify as Hispanic/Latino. In California, Hispanic RN enrollments rose from 18.5% to 27.3% between 2006-2019 (California Board of Registered Nursing, 2018), yet few progress into doctoral or theory-building roles.
These disparities are not just numerical-they are epistemic. When knowledge creation is dominated by a narrow worldview, nursing risks reproducing limited understandings of health and humanity. Emancipatory knowing, as described by Chinn and Kramer, calls us to uncover and transform social structures that perpetuate inequity and to ask whose voices are heard or silenced in the making of nurse knowledge.
Challenging Barriers through Emancipatory Knowing
For me, emancipatory knowing is not abstract-it is embodied. It means critically examining how power shapes what counts as legitimate scholarship and how nursing knowledge can either reinforce or resist those hierarchies.
My scholarly identity is grounded in my lived experience and my commitment to transformation. As a Mexican-American nurse scholar, I strive to amplify culturally grounded frameworks and to mentor others facing similar barriers-limited access, financial hardship, and lack of representation. Through my doctoral research on health literacy and culturally responsive diabetes self-management among Mexican American adults, I aim to expand nursing’s understanding of how language, culture, and structural factors shape health behaviors and outcomes.
Claiming Space in Nursing Knowledge
Writing for Nursology.net offers an opportunity to reclaim epistemic space to assert that knowledge born of struggle, resilience, and cultural identity belongs at the center of nursing theory. It is time for nursing to ask: Who gets to be the knower? Who decides what counts as knowledge?
It is not where we come from that defines us, but how we use our voices to shape where nursing goes next. My story is one among many-stories of nurses of color who persist despite inequity, bringing insight and innovation rooted in lived experience. See: https://nursology.net/2020/06/16/nursing-and-racism-are-we-part-of-the-problem-or-part-of-the-solution-perhaps-both/
Through perseverance and ganas, I have achieved what once seemed impossible. But the true achievement lies ahead- in ensuring the future generations of nurses see themselves reflected in the knowledge that defines our discipline.
Si se puede!
References
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2023). Nursing workforce https://www.aacnnursing.org/news-data/fact-sheets/nursing-workforce-fact-sheet?
California Board of Registered Nursing. (2018). Diversity of California’s Nursing Workforce Chartbook. https://www.rn.ca.gov/pdfs/forms/diversitycb.pdf?
Chinn, P.L., & Kramer, M. K. (2023). Knowledge development in nursing: Theory and process. (11th ed.).
Villarruel, A.M. (2022). Diversifying nursing knowledge: A call for epistemic justice. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 54(3), 241-243.
About Patricia Isela Regalado
Patricia Isela Regalado, MSN, RN, CNE, PhDc, is nearing her doctoral candidacy at Texas Woman’s University. A first-generation Mexican American and U.S. Air Force veteran, her scholarship centers on health literacy, cultural beliefs, and diabetes self-management among Hispanic adults and promoting equity in nursing knowledge and education development.