Academics from Sheffield Hallam University are collaborating with internationally renowned documentary film collective Migrant Media to study the impact of racism on BME nurses and care workers during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The inter-disciplinary research project, Nursing Narratives – Racism and the Pandemic, will be undertaken by academics from the Culture and Creativity Research Institute and the College of Health, Wellbeing and Life Sciences at Sheffield Hallam. It has been awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council following UKRI’s call for projects to explore the impact of Covid-19.
Professor Anandi Ramamurthy, Sheffield Hallam, said: “The coronavirus outbreak has laid bare the structural inequalities of our society and BME communities have suffered the greatest losses. Using creative storytelling we aim to deepen the societal understanding of the critical contribution that BME nurses and care workers have made to the NHS and social care, both historically and today.
“The stories of BME nursing staff and the pandemic are entwined with complex histories of racism which can only be fully understood through amplifying the experiences and voices of those who have been marginalised.
“We hope to develop our understanding of what went wrong in our response to the pandemic and consider what lessons we can learn to create a more equitable society and an NHS that is able to deliver the best patient care.”
The Nursing Narratives – Racism and the Pandemic study will explore how racism has played out during the pandemic and the impact that this has had on the lives of those working in healthcare. Film and wider storytelling techniques will be used to profile the stories of nurses and care staff, and to document the diverse racisms that they have encountered and challenged throughout their working lives.
Ken Fero, documentary filmmaker and co-founder of Migrant Media, adds: “The documentary will collaborate with a wide range of workers who have experienced racism in healthcare, even as they tried to save the dying. Our lives have been in their hands throughout the pandemic and it is important that the public’s overwhelming respect and support of the NHS that has manifested is not transitory. It is important that those who have been on the Covid-19 frontline – so many of whom have been from black and migrant backgrounds – have their experiences documented and their hopes for the future heard.”
This research is not only focused on collecting stories of racial discrimination and the impact of long-term discrimination on individual and institutional approaches to a crisis. Viewing the ‘pandemic as a portal’ through which we can re-shape our direction as a society, we will centre the insights of those on the frontline as a crucial asset in creating significant change.
The following article was written with the intention and apparent approval by members of an EDI team for publication in a maternity newsletter at a London NHS trust. However, once written, it was not permitted for publication by senior management and members of the executive team. The End Stage of Racism By The Birthworkers Collective…
My duty of care to women cannot be unlinked to the women of Gaza and the occupied West Bank by Fatimah Mohamied I hold the privileged position of a healthcare worker in the 6th largest economy of the world, an economy that enjoys such a status directly because of colonial wealth extraction, a legacy that…
Who Cares for the Carers? Thursday 7 September 2023, 6-8.30pm Royal College of Nursing, 20 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0RN For full details and public booking, visit: https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/events/who-cares-for-the-carers070923 A screening of ‘Exposed: Nursing Narratives’ and short films based on interviews will be followed by a panel discussion. Anxiety, frustration, guilt and inner turmoil characterised the…
Exposed has been selected for a film festival in Bergen. The screening will be followed by a Q&A between the film participants and healthcare workers in Norway. Details of the Festival are here
Les récits personnels, narrés dans le documentaire «Exposed – Infirmières En Première Ligne», mettent à jour le racisme dans les services de santé britanniques, notamment pendant la pandémie de Covid. Racisme qui a conduit les infirmières et les sages-femmes noires, dans les services où elles travaillent, à être exposées à davantage de risques que leurs…
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 2022, a Public Accounts…
Ali Upton, Chair of the Royal College of Nursing UK Safety Reps Committee, has made the following comment following a viewing of ‘Exposed’. “It has taken me some time to be able to put into words the sadness and horror that I felt when I first watched ‘Exposed’. I couldn’t watch it all in one…
Paul Roberts, Chief Executive of Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust made the following response following the screening and Q&A of ‘Exposed’ on July 20. “Earlier this week I went to the screening of a film that demonstrated we’re still not there yet on issues around race and inclusion. The film – Exposed: Racism…
We have launched the petition below, please sign and share. “The Government should publish data on the deaths of health staff from Covid-19 by ethnicity, as it is in the public interest to do so. It is incumbent upon the Government to be transparent about what happened in health care during the pandemic. This includes…
We are pleased to announce that Exposed will be the focus of the Mary Seacole Lecture at the Royal College of Nurses conference in Glasgow details below. The screening will involve several RCN members who participated in the film and will be speaking about the demands of the Anti-Racist Manifesto, amongst other things. June 7…
Sat, 25 June 2022 15:00 – Prince Charles Cinema, 7 Leicester Place, London, WC2H 7BY Tickets Racism like a virus spreads and causes significant harm.’ Nursing Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic (an AHRC/UKRI Rapid Response to Covid-19 research project). This is the London premier of Exposed a documentary about the experiences of racism of nurses…
Nursing Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic, Owen Building, Sheffield Hallam University 09:00 – Registration, Level 6 reception area 09:30 – Plenary: Professor Carol Baxter, author of The Black Nurse: An Endangered Species, Hallam Hall 09:50 – Evidence 1: Overview of the project and headline research findings: Research team, Hallam Hall 11:00 – Break Tea and Coffee in Hallam…
Sat, 5 March 2022 09:30 – 16:30 GMT Hallam Hall, City Campus, Owen Building, Sheffield City Centre,S1 2LX Tickets here. ‘Racism like a virus spreads and causes significant harm.’ Nursing Narratives: Racism and the Pandemic (an AHRC/UKRI Rapid Response to Covid-19 research project) has taken a grass-roots approach to understand the experiences of Black and…
Karen Hutchinson MSC RMN.RGN. 38 years and still counting. I am really saddened by the lack of the media representation of Black nurses and indeed people of colour in the fight against COVID-19. But I am not surprised. After 38 years of working as a nurse in various health settings… this is my unfortunate ‘norm’. I…
This is a nurse’s reality, written in confidence to protect against backlash. When I decided to become a nurse all of those years ago, it was simply because I wanted to care for people; human beings as people. It would never have been the case that I only wanted to care for or work with…
Adedolapo Adeleke on the need to build community trust. “I am not taking the vaccine, I do not trust it. I think it’s too soon to have a vaccine.” This was the response I got when I asked a friend if they were going to take the COVID 19 vaccine. This reluctance to receiving the…
Covid through the eyes of an ICU nurse. Last year on the 23rdMarch 2020 I volunteered to work in the intensive care unit from my base which was a dermatology out-patients department. It has been a year since the Covid 19 outbreak happened. We were certain that we would be redeployed to other areas. Since…
An overseas nurse manager tells her story. Sixteen years ago, I arrived in the UK, an overseas nurse with dreams and aspirations. I was told you could be whatever you want from an inspirational leader and I held that very close to my heart. I was naïve when I came to the UK, it was…
Read Riel’s story. I have worked in the Middle East for 10 years, but because of my sexuality it proved to be difficult, so a good friend of mine encouraged me to apply as a nurse in the UK. I was hesitant because I lost £1000 to a fraudulent UK agency, when I applied some…
by Esther Akinpelu – Paediatric Emergency Nurse and member of Nurses of Colour. I am a children’s emergency nurse and I have been qualified for 11 years. My whole life has been shaped by racism and it is a continuous fight for equality. I have joined Nurses United because I believe there is power in…
Launch of Racism Reporting Tool and Anti-racist Framework Wednesday, March 17, 2021 • 7:00 PM • Join us to hear from key campaigners about were we are now a year on from the start of the pandemic, Nurses of Colour’s plan to address racism, and how you can get involved Pannelists Thenjiwe Harris, Movement for Black Lives (NYC,…
by Fatimah Mohamied – Midwife and editorial board member of ‘The Student Midwife Journal’, contributor of ‘all4maternity’ and contributor to the ‘Association of South Asian Midwives’. Midwifery is a profession that not only cares for the physical health of its clientele, but has also a deep and lasting impact on the mental and social health…
In the cross-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report ‘COVID-19: Government procurement and supply of Personal Protective Equipment’, the PAC has raised concern about the experiences of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff who were more likely to report being affected by PPE shortages and feel pressured to work without adequate protection. They said: ‘A third of BAME doctors…
by Professor Anandi Ramamurthy, Sheffield Hallam University. Amin Abdullah, an award-winning nurse who had overcome odds in life died after setting himself alight following dismissal from Charing Cross Hospital in 2015. Not only was Amin unfairly treated, but excessive delays in the investigation of his case were unwarranted and impacted on his mental health. Before…
Nursing Narratives 