In one scene, a black nurse called Tunde is told by his manager that personal protective equipment (PPE) was being locked away at night to prevent its theft during night shifts, during the pandemic when ethnic minorities were more likely to work these hours.
In another, an Asian female doctor called Jasmine is dismissed by an HR manager after raising a double standard regarding requests for shift changes during the pandemic over childcare, something which her white colleagues were granted.
These are some of the scenarios of discrimination depicted in a new form of training for NHS staff that has been designed to create better understanding of the experiences of colleagues from ethnic minority backgrounds.
The training, called “Walking in the shoes of …”, involves participants wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset and watching videos depicting instances of racism and discrimination by actors within an NHS setting.
The clips are based on the transcripts of 133 interviews with NHS employees describing their own experiences of racism while working, collected during the Tides study, a project by academics at Kings’ College London that researches how instances of discrimination within the NHS are related to existing health inequalities.
The training was developed after warnings that the NHS faces a mass exodus of black, Asian and minority ethnic doctors due to “persistent” and “intolerable” levels of racism in the workplace, while research shows that white nurses are twice as likely than their black and Asian colleagues to be promoted.
Prof Stephani Hatch, a professor of sociology and epidemiology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King’s College London, said the VR training being trialled was an “incredibly creative” way of delivering immersive training to help experiences be better understood by staff across the NHS.
“The VR allows for the user in some cases to experience discrimination, but also to be in a position to witness instances of discrimination too … and VR gave us an opportunity to use creative methodologies”.
So far, the training has been completed by 270 staff members at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust.
The academics behind the project believe it should be rolled out across the health service, with Hatch saying: “It’s really important for us that this training hits management and leadership. I would love to see a room full of middle-level managers undertaking the training because they can often be the gatekeepers.”
Dr Rebecca Rhead, a lecturer in society and mental health at Kings, said that during the creation of the VR videos it was important to speak directly to frontline NHS staff to understand their experiences.
“Our research really gave us an insight into the toll their experiences in the workplace had taken on their mental health and the impact it has had on their ability to provide care and continue to work in the NHS,” Rhead said. “This is partly why virtual reality in this form is so powerful because it alleviates the burden of reliving their trauma and spares them the exhausting emotional labour of having to tell people about their sometimes harrowing experiences.”
Helen Walsh, a media and VR producer at Maudsley Learning who helped to develop and implement the training, said the new training had helped to “address some of the underlying issues that are not often talked about by giving people a voice, and making sure others also listen to that voice”.
She added that the training could also directly address the discomfort felt by bystanders when confronted by instances of racism. She said: “I hope that the training that we will be delivering will help to address some of the inequalities which exist within workplaces like the NHS. The video training showed that a lot of people were bystanders in situations like these, and in these training scenarios you are actually forced to be a bystander as you’re not able to take part.”
NHS England was approached for comment.