• Question: Did anyone experience some kind of discrimination, sexism, racism or lookism on the process of earning your job titles? (Please don't answer if this is a personal question, I'm just curious that's all! I'll live!)

    Asked by Rasiya to Notts, LLR, Lincolnshire, HW, Derbyshire on 4 Jul 2023.
    • Photo: Yuen Say Toh

      Yuen Say Toh answered on 4 Jul 2023:

      I think that is a very insightful question. I would say it is impossible to avoid experiencing that, it is important to understand how to deal with it (before it happens), having a great support network both in your personal and work space is really important. So to give a bit of context, I am of ethnic minority backgroud and also female. I am setting up a connected cultures network for Lincolnshire for peer support for all healthcare, social and voluntary sectors can join in to discuss difficulties, challenges and how to deal with it better. Find out about those where you work and start the conversation and be brave to ask questions.

    • Photo: Karen Innes

      Karen Innes answered on 4 Jul 2023:

      Interesting question! – I personally have not experienced any kind of discrimination

    • Photo: Richard meades

      Richard meades answered on 4 Jul 2023:

      as a man going into what was then seen as a predominately female role i must admit most people thought that I was gay ( i’m not..) as to be honest inthe early 1990’s there really wasn’t many male nurses around!
      During my training there were some barriers, I recall a particular Midwife who had strong views that we were tolerated but not really accepted… this was only really restriced to a very limited number of staff.

      The NHS certainly is a inclusive tolerant place to work and in my person experience more issues have arisen from the users of the service than by the staff themselves.
      saying that most people who have issues with Nurses who are Men usually are won round when they interact with us.

      I hope this answers your question

    • Photo: James Waldron

      James Waldron answered on 4 Jul 2023:

      Interesting question. I think overall the NHS is a very diverse place to work and there are roles and usually good acceptance of basically everyone. It does happen at times however, people can be unkind and unfair to each other, and also sometimes patients can behave very poorly. We do our best to counteract this and overall I think we are moving in the right direction. The systems we work with have equity, diversity and inclusion leads and policies to help be as fair as they can be.

      In terms of how people look, I think we are also getting much better at that too, the typical “doctor look” (suit, tie, horn rimmed glasses) is changing and things that were unthinkable years ago are becoming more normal (tattoos for instance are becoming more prevalent).
      I applied for medical school, I had elbow length hair, loads of ear piercings and looked very “metal” lol and I still got in 😀

    • Photo: Kate Knowles

      Kate Knowles answered on 14 Jul 2023:

      Not really with regards to my job title but sadly I have experienced all during my career, Both personally to myself and to colleagues. We support each other well and ask people to stop with that type of behaviour.

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