Creating culturally aware healthcare services

23 Mar 2018

Event encourages students to engage in patient centred care

The School of Health Sciences has marked International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination with an event that encouraged students to engage in patient centred care and understand their role in creating a diverse and welcoming healthcare system.

A series of talks and workshops, introduced by the Faculty’s Associate Dean for Social Responsibility, Dr Hema Radhakrishnan, explored the importance of ‘Culturally aware healthcare services’ in our increasingly diverse society.

Drawing on their own experiences, speakers Sandra Cahill, specialist midwife for asylum seekers at St Mary’s Hospital, and Neil Bendel, Public Health Specialist and honorary lecturer in the Division of Informatics, Imaging & Data Sciences, highlighted the importance of cultural awareness when practicing healthcare, including myths around eye health in optometry and Female Genital Mutilation concerns in midwifery. The workshops gave students and staff an opportunity to consider whether their course curriculum was culturally appropriate.

Dr Dawn Edge, the University’s Academic Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, discussed mental health and wellbeing within Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Groups.

She commented: “This event was an excellent example of collaborative working between students and staff who came together to organise what I found to be both informative and inspiring.”

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is observed each year in memory of those who lost their lives at the Sharpeville massacre on 21 March 1960.