Diversity & Inclusion In Nursing

In this useful vlog, Registered Nurse Claire talks empathically about the importance of diversity and inclusion in nursing, and how to deliver better care to patients with protected characteristics.

Hi everyone. Welcome back to another video. My name is Claire Carmichael. I'm a Registered Nurse and an assistant lecturer.

Today's video is all about diversity, equality, and inclusion. Very important topics.

These topics are not only something that you might need for things like an interview if you're going to university, if you're applying for nursing, if you are applying as a healthcare assistant, or something like that, they might ask you diversity- and equality-related questions to see how you respond and react. So hopefully this video will help for that sort of thing.

But also, it's really, really important as a nurse and in the workplace to have these qualities and making sure that you are upholding diversity, equality, and inclusion in the workplace.

Defining Diversity And Equality

Firstly, what is diversity? It's hard to define. I think I remember when I first had an interview going into nursing, I had a question around diversity and how I would describe this. And I remember finding it difficult because I knew what it was. But to get it out into words in an interview when you're already nervous, I found it really hard.

But diversity just means diverse, it means varied. There are all sorts of different meanings for diversity when you have a little look around online.

But what it means to us as nurses, as healthcare professionals: diversity means the quality or practice of including everybody regardless of their race, their sexuality, their gender, their disabilities, their backgrounds, their age, their social and educational background, things like that.

It's making sure that you include everybody. And diversity means we all have something different to bring. We've all got a different background. We're all a different age, we're all a different race, we're all a different ethnicity. We all have different sexualities and genders.

So, it's really important to recognize the wide, diverse community that we live in. Because everyone can bring something from their backgrounds and from their diverse culture or nature or whoever you are.

It's what makes a team. People have different elements and you fit all those elements together to make a really good team.

And how I would define equality in that is treating everybody the same. That's all you need to know. It doesn't matter where someone's from, their age, sexuality, all of those protected characteristics, you have to treat them as equals.

The Significance Of Inclusion

A part of that equality and treating everyone equal regardless of their diverse backgrounds, is including them. Include them in everything that you do to make them feel valued, to make them feel heard. Because when people feel valued, when people feel heard, when people are included and treated equally and respecting their diverse backgrounds and things like that, you're going to get someone that's really motivated and wants to be working with you. The teamwork and work ethics and all of that is just going to go up a notch because they just feel amazing and supported by you and your team.

So not only is it just the right thing to do, by treating everybody equally, including everybody around you and respecting everybody's diverse backgrounds and being aware of diversity in your workplace as well.

Let's just look at, if you are that sort of person, I don't think anyone out there is, I pray that none of you are like that out there. But if you are that person that says, "What do I have to treat someone equally for? I'm better than them."

I know none of you are like that watching this, so come on. But if anybody is there out there like that, you might have a colleague perhaps that has that sort of mindset because of their own diverse upbringing and background. And that's just the way that they are, unfortunately. We have to remind those people of the legal aspects of diversity, equality, and inclusion.

The NMC Code On Diversity And Inclusion

Here is what the NMC Code says about it. I have got my laptop because I don't want to get this wrong. It's the NMC Code, I should know it off by heart. But there's so much in the NMC Code. I don't know this word for word. So, let's go.

NMC Code of Conduct says, what does it say about diversity?

1.3: Avoid making assumptions and recognize diversity and individual choice.

3.4: Act as an advocate for the vulnerable, challenging poor practice and discriminatory attitudes and behaviour relating to other people's care.

17.1: Take all reasonable steps to protect people who are vulnerable or at risk from harm, neglect and abuse.

20.7: Make sure you do not express your personal beliefs, including political, religious, or moral beliefs, to people in an inappropriate way.

And they are just the key parts that I've pulled from the NMC Code just to show it's in our Code of Conduct.

It's also in the GMC Code of Conduct. So, doctors are not exempt from this either. We should all be treating everybody with respect, equally, including people, and making people feel valued as part of your team.

The Equality Act 2010

What does the other part of the law say?

So, we've got our NMC Code of Conduct, we've got the GMC Code of Conduct, and the other part is the Equality Act.

The Equality Act 2010 protects people that have protected characteristics. And some of those characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, sexuality, sex, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, and race, religion or belief.

So legally, all of those people under those categories are protected. They are legally protected. They can be reported to the police. It can be a hate crime, if anyone's discriminating out there, please do not do this. It's not nice. It is against the law.

Being Kind In A Changing World

And why would anyone do it anyway? Just be kind to each other. The thing is everybody in this world will have some form of learnt behaviour from whatever culture, whatever background, whatever country you are from, whichever country you are living in at present, whatever that is, we've all had these behaviours ingrained into us from the moment we're born.

I've said this in previous videos, especially talking around transgender healthcare. There are these standards that are sort of set from the minute that we're born, especially like being a UK citizen.

We are taught that a female should look a certain way. When you're born, little girls should have dollies and they should like pink, and they should play with glitter. And they should sparkle and be lovely, and they should be the housewife. And when they grow up, they should aim to get married and have children.

And then the boys should play with cars and like blue, and then be manly and macho and have muscles and go to the gym and have the job and be the bread provider for the family.

We've had that learnt behaviour embedded into our skulls from the minute we are born. But who says it has to be like that? Who set those standards in the first place? Why do we have to follow those standards? It's 2023.

The world is changing, and we are seeing more rights for people. We are seeing more women as leaders, more women choosing careers over families. And it is just amazing to see. I love change. I love that we can just be who we want to be.

If you want to be male, if you want to be female, if you want to be non-binary, if you want to dress up in really flamboyant clothing and walk down the street and just be proud of what you are wearing, why can't you do that without somebody judging you for it? It's not okay to me.

Even though I've had all these things embedded in my brain, I've never understood it. I remember as a child, I had a pen friend over in Yugoslavia, and I used to send her little gifts and things like that and write her letters.

I remember saying to my nan at the time, "Can I just send her some money? Because I know she hasn't got any money. And I know she comes from a poor background, and I really want to send her some money to help her and help her family”.

I was, like, 10 or 11, I think, maybe 12, around about that sort of age. And I remember my nan saying to me, "No, you can't send money, because at the airport, it's going to get taken out of the package and the government will have it." And that was her train of thought. I don't know how true that is, but I remember saying to my nan, "But why? Why does this happen? Why can't we just help other people in other countries? Why can't we do what we want?"

And all this time, all my life, I've never understood the world. I've never understood why we can't have kindness, why we can't just respect people and love people for who they are. It doesn't matter what someone's wearing. It doesn't matter what race you are. It doesn't matter what disability you have.

It really baffles me that people are unkind and don't respect others. I don't know why or where that comes from, but sadly, it's there in the world.

Staying Considerate In The Workplace

We should not be bringing that into our workplace as nurses, as healthcare professionals, we should not be doing this. Legally, you'll be sacked for it. The Equality Act, like I said, is there. You've got the NMC Code and GMC Code. So, these things shouldn't be happening.

Regardless of your own opinions, your own upbringing, your own background, your own judgment of others, keep that in your mind. Do not voice it out in public, to other’s where it might hurt people because it then becomes a hate crime.

Nobody in this world deserves to be treated badly purely based on their protected characteristics, their background, their age, their sexuality, their race, their ethnicity… we should all be doing more, and we should all be treating each other with respect and kindness that we deserve. We're all human beings at the end of the day.

Current Inequalities In Healthcare

So, what about equality in healthcare?

There are many, many, many inequalities and discrimination in healthcare. And I don't want to say that because I love our healthcare system.

I love the NHS and everything it stands for, but, unfortunately, there is discrimination within it. And it might be direct, it might be indirect. There are many inequalities for people out there.

Treatment Of BAME And LGBTQ+ Patients

There are many statistics and research that show BAME populations and people of colour are statistically at a disadvantage, and the mortality rates and things like that completely go against them.

Why is that? Why is that a problem for people? Why is that happening out there? Why is nobody looking into that? Why is nobody stopping that?

But the stats and research show it’s there, and people are looking at it, but we need to do more for these populations.

If you look at the LGBTQ+ population, of people and patients, they get massive discrimination. The statistics against them are horrific to look at. If you look up the statistics in healthcare and the discrimination that's faced by them with unwanted and nasty comments, people being turned away from healthcare, based on a person's religious beliefs themselves will turn them away. It's not okay. No one should be doing that. We are there to care for our patients regardless of where they're from.

We should be the Edith Cavell nurses of the world. If you don’t know who Edith Cavell is, she was a nurse in the war and she helped nurse both sides of the war. It didn't matter where that soldier was from. The fact was they were a patient, they were injured, they needed her help. And so, she helped everybody. And unfortunately, when they found out about this, she was shot for it, for treason.

Obviously, we're not going to go around shooting each other, but we should be supporting each other. And we should be helping people, regardless of where they're from, what their background is.

t's going back to that basic thing that I said at the start. We should be helping everybody, regardless of their protected characteristics.

Inequalities Caused By Location

Other inequalities in healthcare are things like patients that live in rural areas. They're miles away from the nearest doctor. They've got no funds, no money to get places. They struggle to get to the GP surgery, if they need one. They struggle to get to a hospital, if they need one. So, they just sit in silence and suffer. Mortality rate goes up as a result. Long-term health conditions get worse as a result.

There are some incentives out there that people have created to help these problems. I saw on social media this thing that there was this big health bus that goes round to rural areas. I can't, remember what this thing was called, or this incentive was called, I'm so sorry.

This was about a year ago during the pandemic, but someone had created this bus. They got funded to get this healthcare bus, so that the doctors and nurses could go out and care for patients in rural areas that couldn't get out or vulnerable patients in the pandemic during lockdown, things like that. It was just amazing to see.

So, people do look at the inequalities and people do things about it, but the inequalities are still there and still happening. That was just one city. What about the rest of the UK?

I love the NHS and everything it stands for, but, unfortunately, there is discrimination within it. And it might be direct, it might be indirect. There are many inequalities for people out there.

Ability And Age Also Need To Be Considered

Another type of inequality in healthcare could be someone with a disability, like a wheelchair user, and they're at a hospital or a GP surgery that hasn't got ramp access, that hasn't got wheelchair access, that hasn't got disabled toilet access for them, that's a massive disadvantage.

How do they cope in that situation? How do they get seen? How do they get the proper care that they need? How is this happening out there?

In 2023, it's still happening. I'm still seeing things on social media about it.

Older aged adults, they get fobbed off a lot by doctors and nurses because, "Oh, it's just your age." That's what it gets down to, “at the end of it, it's just your age”. It's one of the age things. Okay, but if they are leaking urine, they're struggling in pain because of their arthritis every single day of their lives, you can't be fobbing things like that off as it's just age related because it's not.

You need to help somebody, regardless of their age to have a good quality of life, a good as quality as anybody else. Treating them equally, recognizing the protected characteristics, their age, and just making sure that they have the best care possible to the end of their days.

...It’s to do with the Trust that you're working in, the company that you're working in, your colleagues, your team. They should all be doing something to provide better equality, better inclusion in the workplace and making sure that they recognize diversity in the workplace.

Doing Better As Healthcare Professionals

So, as you can tell, pretty much every protected characteristic that I've mentioned has been treated wrong or badly by healthcare professionals because of their protected characteristics.

That’s not okay. We need to do better. We need to do better out there to help people.

It all starts with you as a person and your judgments, and making sure that you get rid of any judgments that you have and treat people with the respect that they deserve.

But also, it's to do with the Trust that you're working in, the company that you're working in, your colleagues, your team. They should all be doing something to provide better equality, better inclusion in the workplace and making sure that they recognize diversity in the workplace.

There should be some sort of diversity, equality, inclusion training. There should be a policy in place. There should be lots of things that they do to help get this into the teams and just make sure that it's honoured in the Trust that you work or the workplace that you work.

And lastly, if you notice any inequalities, discrimination out there, please speak up.

Please report it. Please do something about it. Don't just sit quietly and let it pass by and do it, obviously, in a professional way.

I know people are always worried when they speak up that they're going to get some sort of backlash from that. But if everybody's thinking like that and not doing anything about it, how are things going to change?

It's not, so just by making small changes yourself, or speaking up, but in a professional way and just saying, "Oh, do you know what? Have you noticed this? Is there anything we could do to help these patients or help my colleague, or anything like that?"

Bringing it up in a nice, professional way is going to make a world of difference. And have a look at your Trust and your workplace and see if they have got any training on these things.

See if there are any policies in place. How are they making it equal? Have a look at job descriptions. Are the job descriptions made for everybody? Are they recruiting from people from all different diverse backgrounds? If you notice something missing, try and implement it. Have a look and see what you can do to have that in your team and just make it a better place for everybody.

Because nobody in this world deserves to be treated badly purely based on their protected characteristics, their background, their age, their sexuality, their race, their ethnicity. It's not okay. Nobody should be treated that way.

And we should all be doing more, and we should all be treating each other with respect and kindness that we deserve. We're all human beings at the end of the day and we all bleed the same blood.

And on that note, I should say goodbye. I hope you all have an amazing day wherever you are in the world.

Keep going, keep smiling, be kind, and sending big love to you all.

Until next time.