Principles to support anti-racism in midwifery and nursing education and practice
Racism and other forms of discrimination not only affect people receiving care, but also many midwifery and nursing professionals who provide it.
Everyone deserves to receive equitable, culturally safe, anti-racist, unbiased care.
Students and nursing and midwifery professionals deserve to learn and work in psychologically safe environments where discriminatory behaviours and biases are called out, challenged, and not tolerated.
Anti-racism is fundamental to patient safety and public protection.
Our anti-racism principles set out some of the ways educators, organisations, registrants and employers can address concerns around inequities in care and racism across health and social care practice, education, and regulation.
The principles are designed to:
- Strengthen cultural safety, curiosity and respect in practice and education
- Explicitly advance meaningful, sustained anti-racist, bias-aware practice.
It is our expectation that universities and healthcare organisations will adopt these principles in course content, training and service provision.
Darllenwch yr egwyddorion (Cymraeg)
What do the principles include?
The principles are organised around four areas.
Culture, equity and inclusion
This pillar establishes anti-racism as fundamental to patient safety and public protection – not an optional add-on or a values exercise. It calls on individuals and organisations to take steps including recognising anti-racism as a legal requirement, and embedding anti-racist practice, bias awareness, cultural safety, curiosity and respect across all areas of education and practice.
Learning, education and workforce development
This pillar focuses on what future and current professionals are taught, how they are assessed, and the environments in which they learn. It includes expectations to equip midwifery and nursing educators, practice supervisors, and assessors to deliver inclusive, evidence-based teaching and fair, unbiased assessment including the ability to recognise and respond to intersectional bias.
Community and person-centred practice
This pillar puts service users, families and communities at the centre of how care is designed and delivered. It encourages everyone in and around midwifery and nursing education and practice to proactively challenge racist stereotypes – and to be aware of intersectional factors that exacerbate inequitable outcomes, including deprivation, domestic abuse, and being LGBTQ+.
Assurance, accountability and sector improvement
This pillar makes anti-racism measurable and reportable – embedding anti-racism within governance, decision-making, and performance frameworks across organisations. It sets the expectation that accountability for equitable, anti-racist practice applies to individuals, providers and AEIs – requiring documentation, and active responses to discrimination, support and reflective learning.
Who are the principles for?
These principles apply across all sectors where midwifery, nursing and, in England only, nursing associate practitioners learn and work.
That includes education institutions, independent and private providers, social care, and the agency workforce as well as the NHS.
The expectations, accountability and support are consistent for all registrants regardless of setting.
Using the principles
We’ve designed a gap analysis tool for universities and healthcare organisations to use to start aligning course content, training or service provision with the principles. We encourage organisations to repeat this self-assessment each year.
Download the gap analysis tool
