Stand Up, Speak Out! Racial Justice in Healthcare Education.
This project is funded by the Trinity College Equality Fund.
The report of the Stand Up, Speak Out project 2022 can be viewed here
Enquiries: please contact the Project Organiser Aaron Koay (he/him) at cheechek@tcd.ie.
Background & Full details of the Stand Up, Speak Out! project:
There have been a number of reports of racism directed at minoritised ethnic healthcare students at Trinity (1-4). These reported incidents include microaggressions, bullying and physical assaults, with alleged perpetrators including patients, colleagues and teaching or clinical staff.
The "Stand Up, Speak Out! Racial Justice in Healthcare Education" project aims to develop racial justice in healthcare education at Trinity by involving students as active stakeholders to inform strategy, policy, education and research directions. Aligning with Trinity's Equality Policy 2016 (5) and the Race Equality in the Higher Education Sector Report 2021 (6), this community involvement project is ambitious in its goals, with two distinct project phases:
Phase 1: Racial Justice Zoom Convening (19th May 2022, Thursday – Registration & Further Details)
Providing the first platform of its kind in Ireland, we will hold a half-day racial justice Zoom convening for minoritised ethnic healthcare students. The bespoke convening will involve two parts: 1) keynote presentations by renowned racial justice advocates and researchers, followed by 2) breakout student group discussions on potential racial justice strategies (e.g. reporting pathways, clinical placement, curriculum content and assessment) in a safe and empowering environment. The discussions will be collated, pseudonymised and summarised to generate a bespoke report.
Phase 2: Report Dissemination and Workshop (More details to follow)
The report will be launched at an event where it will be presented and discussed, followed by an intercultural competency workshop for interested staff members delivered by the Immigrant Council of Ireland. The report will capture the racial justice priorities in healthcare education as highlighted by the participants, and will be disseminated to the Faculty of Health Sciences Executive and the Equality Office (including the Racial and Ethnic Equality Working Group and Inclusive Curriculum Project) to embed participant voices in future racial justice strategies. This will benefit future minoritised ethnic healthcare students in the Faculty and wider University.
Project Team
This is an innovative project based on multi-level collaborations: 1) student-staff collaboration; 2) interdisciplinary collaboration between the School of Medicine, School of Nursing & Midwifery and Department of Sociology; 3) intersectoral collaboration between Trinity College Dublin and the Immigrant Council of Ireland. Project members are listed below.
Members of the Trinity Faculty of Health Sciences EDI Group:
Project Organiser and Student Co-leader: Aaron Koay, MSc Student, School of Social Sciences and Philosophy
Staff Co-Leader: Dr Miriam Galvin, Associate Professor, School of Medicine
Lena Doherty, Faculty Administrator, Faculty of Health Sciences
Claire Murphy, Chief Technical Officer (Specialist), School of Medicine
Dr Elaine Burke, Research Fellow, School of Medicine
Olayinka Aremu, PhD student, School of Nursing and Midwifery
Members of the Immigrant Council of Ireland:
Teresa Buczkowska, Integration Manager
Valéria Aquino, Integration Officer
Enquiry
Please contact the Project Organiser Aaron Koay (he/him) at cheechek@tcd.ie if you have any queries.
References
1. Adeleye T, Adeniran D, Fidel M. How POC students feel marginalised on Irish campuses. University Times. 2020 July 18. Available at https://universitytimes.ie/2020/07/how-poc-students-feel-marginalised-on-irish-campuses [Accessed 2022 Apr 10].
2. Adeleye T, Adeniran D, Fidel M, Watson C. Discrimination and apathy: Students describe culture of racism on campuses. University Times. 2020 July 18. Available at https://universitytimes.ie/2020/07/discrimination-and-apathy-students-describe-culture-of-racism-on-campuses [Accessed 2022 Apr 10].
3. Koay A. Prescriptions and prejudices: Pharmacy students’ experiences of racism. Trinity News. 2020 June 21. Available at http://trinitynews.ie/2020/06/prescriptions-and-prejudices-pharmacy-students-experiences-of-racism [Accessed 2022 Apr 10].
4. Malekmian S. Racism in Irish healthcare: Students reveal their experiences. Hotpress. 2020 July 15. Available at https://www.hotpress.com/culture/racism-in-irish-healthcare-students-reveal-their-experiences-22822515 [Accessed 2022 Apr 10].
5. Trinity College Dublin. Equality Policy. 2016. Available at https://www.tcd.ie/equality/assets/docs/EqualityPolicyRevised2016LargePrint.pdf [Accessed 2022 Apr 10].
6. Kempny M, Michael L. Race Equality in the Higher Education Sector. 2021. Available at https://hea.ie/assets/uploads/2021/10/HEA-Race-Equality-in-the-Higher-Education-Sector-Analysis-commissioned-by-the-Higher-Education-Authority-1.pdf [Accessed 2022 Apr 10].