Nursing Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic – Saturday 5th March
Come and join the discussions at the launch event of Nursing Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic on Saturday 5th March at Sheffield Hallam University City Campus. This important new research examines healthcare, racism and the Covid-19 pandemic.
The launch event will include the presentation of our findings and the screening of our new, ground-breaking documentary film. The afternoon will see the launch of a Manifesto for Change co-produced with the nurses and midwives who have spoken out. There will be an opportunity to hear directly from them. It will be followed by a panel discussion with policy makers and strategic leads. Keynote by Professor Carol Baxter and panellists include, Prof Jacqueline Dunkley Bent CMO, Ruth May CNO, Dr Habib Naqvi and Dr Gloria Rowland.
You can book a discounted ticket for healthcare staff and activists on the Eventbrite page. Alternatively, request a free ticket by emailing Freya Collier-Sewell.
About Nursing Narratives
Black, Asian and migrant nurses have made a critical contribution to the NHS and social care. The current coronavirus outbreak has laid bare structural inequalities. In the first month of the UK lockdown, 71% of nurses and midwives who died were from black and Asian backgrounds. (HSJ April 2019) In February, a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recognised that the government “does not know enough about the experience of frontline staff, particularly BAME staff”. It asked the government to consider the “extent to which (and reasons why) BAME staff were less likely to report having access to PPE and being tested for PPE and more likely to report feeling pressured to work without adequate PPE”. The October Lessons Learned report recognises that ‘the higher incidence … may have resulted from higher exposure to the virus’, but there is little address to racism in the report.
Nursing Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic has taken a grass roots approach to understand the experiences of black and Asian staff during the pandemic. 354 BAME staff (survey n=308 & narrative interviews n=46) participated in the study, to tell of their experiences of racism at work, both during and prior to the pandemic. 18 nurses and midwives have spoken out on film and will be part of a documentary to be released in Spring 2022. The majority of study participants did not see racism as individual, isolated behaviour but a structural practice embedded in the institutional culture. This was further exposed in the pandemic with devastating consequences.
The Nursing Narratives Team
Professor Anandi Ramamurthy (Principal Investigator), Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Sadiq Bhanbhro (Co-Investigator), Sheffield Hallam University
Dr Faye Bruce (Co-Investigator), Manchester Metropolitan University
Ken Fero (Film Maker), Migrant Media
Freya Collier-Sewell (Research Associate), Sheffield Hallam University
You must be logged in to post a comment.