Learning Together. Understanding and supporting Black nursing students

Exploring Black nursing students’ experience of university is increasing their chances of success in their dream profession.

Now a series of ‘Learning Together’ events are being rolled out to others who are interested in sharing and hearing about the issues at play and how to tackle them.

Historically, the number of nursing students nationwide who ‘drop out’ of their studies has been higher for those from BAME/GEM (Global Ethnic Majority) backgrounds.

The Nursing team at UON has introduced storytelling sessions where BAME Nursing students share their experiences of studying and use this as a forum to resolve issues.

Anecdotal findings from the students suggest varied and complex needs should be met for Black nursing students to achieve a greater sense of belonging at university, and more awareness among staff about the impact of unconscious bias.

Their recommendations include embedding storytelling into the Nursing curriculum, increasing advocacy by and for Black students, creating support groups for English language and working with students to deliver further projects to enhance feelings of belonging.

Following a national initiative from Health Education England, the team also created a ‘buddy support’ mentoring programme, with final-year students providing extra, personalised help and guidance for newer cohorts.

Doreen Dube, a recent graduate of Adult Nursing, was part of the project as a Research Assistant, collecting personal stories from nursing students and analysing the themes that emerged.

Doreen said: “People tend to shy away from having difficult conversations about race and racism. But I decided to join this project because I thought I could help get people to open up and talk about a challenging topic, as well as help me understand my own experiences and make better sense of them.

“A lot of the time when we discuss race, the burden to do so is put on those who experience racism, but it’s everyone’s job to get involved. The storytelling helped us to get a deeper understanding of the issues that can impact how Black nursing students learn and thrive in academia, such as the difficulties they can face if English isn’t their first language.”

In addition, Nursing has created a series of online conversations with experts aimed at sharing the experiences of Black academics, professionals and students.

Called Learning Together, the talks are open to all students and staff irrespective of ethnic background or subject area. They will be held on the University’s online meeting place Collaborate and UON speakers and external guests will cover the following topics that people from outside of the University are also welcome to join:

• Tuesday 18 April. Christopher Fray will talk about Discrimination.
• Thursday 1 June. Lydiah Igweh, Global Head of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at Kaplan International Pathways, will talk about Allyship.
• Thursday 11 July. Anjani Rajani, Founder of Power2Progress, will discuss mental health and wellbeing.
• Thursday 10 August. Speaker details tbc will talk about student finance needs.
• Tuesday 3 October. Speaker details tbc will talk about ‘The Journey of Overcoming Adversity’,
• Thursday 16 November. Details are to be confirmed, but this will be an in-person session and will cover the theme ‘Being Inspired and Moving Forward’.

Doreen added: “It’s important all of us, whatever our background or experience, can learn together, listen, and develop solutions. It’s up to all of us to help sort these issues as the benefits of doing so are for everyone.”