Hannah’s story

Hannah talks about the key concepts of communication and accessing available services for support. Hannah mentions she has experienced mental and physical health, finance and family problems throughout her course but has benefited from being directed to many sources of support.

“I’ve got close lecturers that I sometimes share information with, and they are there to direct me to the right path.”

Hannah mentions the spiritual support she has received from the chaplain as well as the support she has received from the Student’s Union (SU). SU’s are part of every university and can offer a multitude of support (or just direction in how to access support) and this has helped Hannah. Hannah also accessed counselling services through the university.

“Sometimes in life, there are things you think you have overcome, but when you do counselling… when you reflect back, you see if I did this before, I would be better.”

Hannah also talks about two other key sources of support for healthcare students: the link lecturer and the practice education facilitator (PEF)  team. A link lecturer is usually a lecturer who is ‘linked’ to one of the clinical areas where students are placed and often will go into the placement area at regular intervals to see and support students in practice. The PEF is employed to support students when in placement (and often staff with their ongoing development).

“We normally have the link lecturer who sometimes attends placement and if we have any concerns, we can always raise this with them... The hospital as well have got the PEF team and if we have any concerns, we can always approach them, also you have your supervisor...”

Crucially, Hannah also talks about the anti-racist collective at the university and how this has supported her and other global majority students;

“There is also an organisation which is the anti-racism [collective] …that I have been a member of this organisation which is led by the university... and is like a safe space to speak... people are there to listen to you and they can support you.”

Hannah also talks about keeping lists of the things that are going well to give perspective when things are not going so well.

Resources for course teams

Considerations for academic teams

• whilst staff are often aware of the support for students accessing reasonable adjustments, extenuating circumstances and/or financial support, general mental and spiritual wellbeing can be overlooked. What services are available to support students with these aspects of their lives? Do you have chaplaincy services to support spiritual wellbeing? How are students signposted to these? Are there prayer spaces on campus and are staff aware of these?
• how do staff familiarise themselves with the services the SU can provide to students? The SU are often brought into early course lectures to speak to students (often with course teams not present) but then do not return. Students report that the overwhelming information they are given around induction is easily forgotten and when they need to access services further down the line they do not remember what is available or how to access it. How can you provide refreshers to students throughout their course?
• Hannah discusses how her participation in an anti-racist group at the university supported her. This is a critical point to consider for course teams when we know that there are numerous inequalities for global majority students in accessing, continuing and succeeding in higher education. We are also aware of the direct racism that can be experienced by students by patients and staff (see resources below for further reading and resources). How are you and your course team supporting global majority students? How have you embraced decolonisation of the curriculum?
• Hannah was also supported by a link lecturer in practice, this can be an important source of support for students in practice, providing belonging within the placement context where students may not feel like they belong to the practice context. How often do link lecturers attend practice to support students? How do they access the member of staff when they are there? How is this communicated to students?

Tools for academic teams

• there are a great number of research papers exploring the experience of global majority healthcare students - see here for two exploring this within nursing and midwifery
  • example one
  • example two
• profession-specific toolkits are available via many of the royal colleges and higher education leaders to champion anti-racism; the royal college of midwives (RCM), the quality assurance agency (QAA) and council of deans for health all have tools or frameworks to refer to

Resources for students

Considerations for students

• find out who your link lecturer is – this is a member of university staff who will visit practice areas from time to time to support students. They can be an invaluable source of support whilst in practice and can support you with communicating with and engaging with your practice supervisors and/or practice assessor. Many will be able to give practical skills support whilst in practice too. Ask them when they visit practice and how often this is and check-in with them. It can be really heartening to see a familiar face on a clinical placement, particularly if it is a new placement area and you don’t quite feel like you belong
• there are many different people who you can access for support in practice. If you do not feel like you can talk to your link lecturer or even the practice education team, think about the wider services available to staff, many of these you will be able to access as a student. For example, within nursing and midwifery there are ‘professional advocate’ roles who can be accessed by students. Many of the royal colleges (like the RCN, RCM or allied health professions federation) will also have support or advice lines you can access
• do not neglect your spiritual wellbeing, this could be your continued participation in a chosen religion or just ensuring the customs, values and ethics that are important to you remain as part of your life as you proceed with your study. Your university will provide general wellbeing services usually alongside a chaplain who can support students of many different faiths and direct students to spaces that support wellbeing
• engage in anti-racism groups to become an ally in eradicating racism or to find a safe space for support if you are part of the global majority. You can also ask your course teams what they have done to support global majority students in both university and practice

Tools for students

• find out about the professional nurse advocate role and professional midwifery advocates’ remit by searching on NHS England’s website
• access royal colleges for student support:
  • the society of radiographers got questions? | SoR
  • the RCN (who have student nurse advice guides)
  • RCM student midwife support
  • national union of students – have anti-racism resources

Resources for practice staff

Considerations for practice staff

• are you aware of who is the link lecturer from the university for your area? When do they visit practice and how frequently? How can you contact them if you wish to discuss supporting a student in practice?
• how are staff in practice kept up to date with the latest information regarding students in practice? With some professions now there is no formal ‘mentorship’ role or training, this crucial element is being overlooked. Information might include everything from changes to practice documentation, student assessment in practice, expectations regarding recording hours, changing regulatory direction regarding student education. Can you invite university representatives to annual staff mandatory training sessions to give a higher education ‘update’?
• how are staff trained in supporting and mentoring students? Whilst there have been changing regulatory requirements around this in nursing and midwifery, this may be an area for development. Some universities run coaching or mentoring programmes for staff to enable them to provide this crucial role and this will contribute to staff continuing professional development (CPD)
• how are global majority students supported in practice? Do you know what to do if a student reports or experiences racism either from a patient or member of staff? How are more subtle institutional forms of racism present in your area? Do you feel comfortable challenging racism in all its forms?

Tools for practice staff

• access e-learning on practice supervisor preparation for nursing and midwifery council (NMC) registrants as well as elearning support for supporting allied health professions (AHP) students is available at e-learning for health
• read the recent excellence through equality report from the NHS confederation report for examples for practice of embedding anti-racism

(N.B. The links and tools provided are a selection of those available and should not be considered a conclusive list or endorsement by NHS England. Links are up to date at time of publication).