A nurse from the Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust has won a Royal College of Nursing (RCN) award to mark their outstanding contribution to the equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) agenda at the College’s annual regional Black History Month conference.
Rewarding excellence in enhancing the experience of BAME service users and staff across the health and social care sectors, the awards recognise a wide range of initiatives being undertaken across the North West.
With over 40 years’ experience working for her Trust, Patience Experience Matron Gillian Walker has been recognised for her exceptional work with the local and wider BAME communities of the city of Liverpool to widen participation, address health inequalities and improve service users’ experience of and access to women’s health services.
Through the strategic development of links between communities, established groups and attendance at health events, Gillian has founded outreach programmes to create pathways to healthcare and welfare initiatives that are relevant to the needs of the local community. As part of that work, she facilitated an outreach programme for subject matter experts from the trust to deliver education and raise awareness of women’s health within a safe space for these women to access.
Amongst her many notable successes have been the creation of programmes to support women who suffer honour-based abuse and harmful practices and also the introduction within her trust of bilingual volunteers, both of which support access to often complex healthcare systems for those for whom English is not their first language.
Congratulating the award winners, Estephanie Dunn, Regional Director of RCN North West, said:
“Our Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic nursing community play a vital role in caring for people and their families across the region and these awards celebrate the unique contribution that they make. We are proud to honour their achievements alongside those who work to address inequalities that this demographic contends with on a daily basis.
“No one, no matter their ethnicity or place of birth, should be denied the same rights and opportunities afforded to others and there are few places where that disparity is more apparent than in the health and care sector. Despite progress made by employers to address race inequality, discrimination in the health and care sector is systemic - and it’s clear it still has a long way to go in overcoming the prejudices that both patients and staff face and to achieve greater equality
“However, hearing how valued our award winners are in their organisations gives me hope that one day trying to fight inequality within the health and care sector will be a thing of the past.”
The awards form part of the RCN North West’s annual event to recognise and celebrate the outstanding contribution of nursing staff either from or in service of those from BAME backgrounds who work in health and social care across the region.
This year’s conference, the theme of which was ‘Anti-Racism: A Public Health Solution’, took place on Wednesday at the Quaker House in Liverpool. Hosted by Joan Sadler OBE, Director of Partnerships and Equality, NHS Confederation, speakers included Dr Gunjit Bandesha, Director of Healthcare Public Health, NHS England North West, and Shabnaz Rahman, Senior Operational Manager- Stakeholder Outreach & Briefing Lead, Windrush Customer Support and Engagement Team at the Home Office.
The award winners this year reflect the wide-ranging initiatives being undertaken across a range of settings, including universities, healthcare settings and hospitals, in both clinical and non-clinical areas. They were recognised for their commitment to ensuring equity in access to healthcare provision for all and in the promotion and further recruitment of new nurses from the BAME workforce.