King’s College London: New report guides the development of an anti-racist practice resource for NHS staff

Researchers at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and Queen Mary University of London reviewed existing evidence on anti-racist practices and outlined actionable steps to inform a new NHS resource for nurses and midwives.

The report, commissioned by the NHS Confederation and led by the Tackling Inequalities and Discrimination Experiences in health Services (TIDES) team, reviewed existing research on how anti-racist practices can be developed and what works in the context of healthcare workforce settings.

The findings informed the development of the new NHS England resource: Combatting racial discrimination against minority ethnic nurses, midwives and nursing associates, published last week (3 November 2022). The resource is designed to help nurses, midwives and nursing associates recognise and challenge racial discrimination. It also supports those in leadership roles to be inclusive leaders.

Researchers critically reviewed the available evidence on how workplace culture, policies and procedures can reinforce racial discrimination, and how this can reduce the quality of care delivered to racial minority individuals and communities by NHS nurses and midwives.

Using the analysis findings, they created a nursing and midwifery anti-racism resource framework made up of six key concepts to support anti-racist practice in the healthcare workforce:

Recognise and challenge racism
Caring and belonging
Challenging leadership
Authentic inclusion
Curriculum/training
Internationally educated, trained and recruited nurses
The framework, which incorporated the insights of experienced nurses, midwives and NHS leaders, as well as the findings of the evidence review, is provided within the NHS resource.

The report also outlines policy recommendations, provides examples from healthcare practice, and proposes practical actions that professional codes of practice can use to develop a resource for frontline nurses and midwives to integrate good anti-racist practice into their work.

This anti-racist resource is an important step towards combatting racism and discrimination through policies, practices and procedures within the NHS and achieving sustainable change.
– Professor Stephani Hatch, Principal Investigator of the TIDES study at King’s IoPPN and senior author of the report
The TIDES study investigates how discrimination experienced by both patients and healthcare practitioners may generate and perpetuate inequalities in health and health service use.

Phase 1, funded by Wellcome, aims to identify inequalities in health service use and explore discrimination by both healthcare practitioners and patients. Phase 2, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19, focuses on examining the impact of COVID-19 on inequalities by ethnic minority people working in health and social care.