University Healthcare Racial Discrimination in NHS Report

This report addresses the issue of racial discrimination within the National Health Service (NHS), focusing on its impact on nurses, particularly those from ethnic minority backgrounds. It references the Equality Act 2010 as a crucial legal framework for protecting individuals from discrimination in the workplace, emphasizing the negative effects of racism on nurses, including reduced job satisfaction and impaired communication, potentially leading to treatment errors. The report examines the role of NHS policies, such as the Equality and Diversity Policy, in fostering a respectful and equitable work environment. It underscores the importance of promoting awareness and establishing committees to monitor policy implementation, allowing employees to report instances of discrimination. The report concludes that awareness of equality is an important factor which can reduce the problem in workplaces, and emphasizes the importance of creating an environment where all nurses are treated with dignity and respect.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Health and Social Care
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
HEALTHCARE
The British National Health Service (NHS) is a well-known organisation which has a
diverse group of population. There are different qualified nurses employed in NHS around
the globe. This diversity has different positive impact on NHS. However, nurses outside of
the country often encounter racial discrimination in their working life (Allan and Westwood
2016). The Equality Act 2010 involves in protection of an individual from discrimination by
employers and one of the protected characteristics is race. Racism is defined as the belief and
practices of a group which demeans another group of people. These beliefs can include,
cultural differences, skin colour etc. Racism is connected with discrimination as it justifies
the inequality among different group of people. Different studies refers to the fact that ethnic
minority nurses generally does not express their perception of discrimination (Hilario,
Browne and McFadden 2018). Some studies also reported the stereotypical mind set about
the African nurses and categorize them as they have lack of potential to become a supervisor
(Hilario, Browne and McFadden 2018).. This report describes about the need of the nurses
and the implementation of the policies regarding this issue.
A nursing work force requires an adequate environment to provide proper care to the
patients. These environment required proper coordination and communication among the
nurses and other medical professional (Kersey-Matusiak 2018). Lack of communication
among nurses can lead to different treatment related errors during treatment. Apart from that,
it is the ethical duty of the nurses to support equality among each other to enhance the healthy
communication among each other (Kersey-Matusiak 2018). In case of racial discrimination,
the working environment is hampered as there is a sense of inequality among nurses (Kersey-
Matusiak 2018). This has a direct effect on the communication between the nurses. As a
result, erroneous treatment will occur. Apart from that the sense of equality is directly
connected with the job satisfaction of the nurse (Kersey-Matusiak 2018).

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HEALTHCARE
The Equality and Diversity Policy of NHS plays and important role to maintain
equality among the nurses. The policy involved in creating the workplace where people are
treated with respect and dignity at all the stages of employment (National Health Care
System., 2019). This policy also opposed all forms of discrimination and directed the staffs to
treat each other and all patients with appropriate respect and dignity. In case of
implementation, it is the duty of the health sector to promote equality and diversity among
nurses (National Health Care System., 2019). Apart from that, it is important to spread the
awareness regarding equality. An equality and diversity committee will refer to the Equality
Act 2010 to monitor the implementation of the Policy. Employees can complain to against
any kind of racial discrimination to the higher authority (National Health Care System.,
2019).
It is understood that the policy has some positive effect on the minor ethnic nurses as
they can complain against such kind of discrimination in the workplace. The person involves
in the discrimination will be penalised on the basis of Equality Act 2010. Awareness of
equality is an important factor which can reduce this problem in work places.

3
HEALTHCARE
Reference
Allan, H.T. and Westwood, S., 2016. Non-European nurses’ perceived barriers to UK nurse
registration. Nursing Standard, 30(37), pp.45-51.
Hilario, C.T., Browne, A.J. and McFadden, A., 2018. The influence of democratic racism in
nursing inquiry. Nursing inquiry, 25(1), p.e12213.
Kersey-Matusiak, G., 2018. Delivering Culturally Competent Nursing Care:: Working with
Diverse and Vulnerable Populations. Springer Publishing Company.
Our Policies and Procedures. National Health Care System. Available from
https://www.england.nhs.uk/contact-us/pub-scheme/pol-proc/ Accessed on 31 July
2019.