South West approach to inclusive training within practice for healthcare students and international staff
Background
A previous system-wide collaboration project across Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care System (which was Health Education England funded and led by UWE Bristol) found there are specific support needs for Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Healthcare Students whilst on healthcare courses relating to racism, racial bias and/or discriminatory behaviour. These findings are also supported by the outcomes of university Ethnicity Awarding Gaps and NHS Workforce Race Equality Standards.
In summary, four key factors contribute to students in practice placement and international staff experiencing racism and discrimination:
- practice placement culture
- education setting culture
- inconsistent inclusive training between healthcare and education settings
- student preparation for practice.
The Inclusive Training within Practice project is a continuation from these findings and will offer tangible, meaningful solutions to these shared challenges in the form of training and resource.
"In this project, we’re absolutely focused on making meaningful and sustainable improvements in the experience of both students and staff. Crucially, this can only be achieved through co-creation and collaboration, so this is at the heart of this workstream."
Antony Hill Principal Investigator and Dean of Learning and Teaching, College of Health Science and Society, UWE Bristol
Objectives
The objectives of the project are to:
- translate Healthcare Student Support in Placement project recommendations into clear actions for stakeholders
- enhance, adapt, or extend inclusive strategies to better support Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic students and international staff to foster a sense of belonging
- develop inclusive training packages based on best practice to address racism and discrimination in both healthcare settings and education settings
- develop scalable and sustainable culturally appropriate wellbeing support training for wellbeing practitioners who support staff within healthcare settings and students in education setting
- share project outputs and best practice resource via a platform accessible to all stakeholders.
About the project
This project aims to improve the experiences and outcomes of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic healthcare students and international staff in healthcare.
A process of gathering requirements from key stakeholders along with the recommendations from the previous project led to the project design with seven key themes:
- Anti-racism in Education and in Healthcare
- Positive Action in Healthcare Practice Settings
- Intercultural Communication
- Inclusive Teaching and Practice
- Student Support in Practice
- Mandatory Equality Diversity and Inclusion Training – Implicit Bias
- Culturally Appropriate Wellbeing Support.
Taking a multi-system, multi-disciplinary approach to addressing common challenges, key stakeholders include healthcare placement providers, higher education institutions and further education colleges across the South West. The healthcare courses in scope are Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions.
Focused collaboration to explore challenges and opportunities will be across: Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG), Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) and Devon. Additionally, organisations from Gloucestershire, Somerset and Dorset have joined the collaboration. 26 organisations and almost 100 individuals are collaborating and co-creating resources which will offer solutions. Seven specialist trainers will lead focused collaboration and will then develop inclusive training packages and resources. Using a co-production approach, stakeholders in collaboration will be consulted and staff and student feedback panels will ensure intersectional and diverse voices feed into resource development.
All resource will be developed with key considerations: sustainable, scalable, as cost-effective as possible and available through open access via the NHS Learning Hub. Resource should be available from October 2024 and will be promoted widely.
Governance for the project is through a Project Board consisting of key project team members and NHS England South West representatives. A South West Stakeholder Collaboration Group has been created as a reference group and as a community of practice, the group meet monthly. South West stakeholders more widely will be kept informed through key regional networks.
Impact
- Ethnicity Awarding Gaps reduced.
- NHS Workforce Race Equality Standards improved.
- Staff experience improved (incl. independent placement providers).
- Increase in multi-system, multi-discipline collaboration to address common challenges in healthcare practice education, reducing waste and increasing efficiency.
- Increase in confidence in co-developing resources across healthcare and education.
- Increase in confidence in embedding initiatives/training to improve the experiences and outcomes of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic staff and students.
"The inclusive training programme demonstrates that we are taking intentional action to improve inclusivity and will help us move the dial on our learning and workplace cultures. The codesign and production of the training is critical to us gaining people’s trust and ensure the focus is on what matters and is important to make meaning change happen."
Carrie Biddle Sponsor and NHS SW Regional Head of Allied Health Professions, Psychological Professions and Healthcare Scientists
Next steps
Inclusive practice resources and training packages will begin to be launched from October 2024.
